Back catalogue: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Eclectic Beats Music is building up a fine head of steam and the sixth outing is a tidy 7" featuring two red-hot Latin broken beat cuts. The opener is a collaborative remix from Born74 and Fradinho who do a superb job of flipping Jorge Ivan Martin's original gem 'Yo Tambien Baile La Conga' into something more contemporary with fresh broken beats, plenty of steamy Latin flavours all finished off in electric fashion with Frank Santiuste's trumpet solos. Flip this one over and you will find Fradinho unearth an easier cut and again update with some compelling broken beats and funk as well as a rich bassline and silky synth solos.

Review: Soul and jazz meet head to head on this new LP from Hot Casa, to truly bring the two genres into their natural alignment. Hola Adisa Farrar is a vocalist who hails from California via Jamaican roots, while Florian Pellissier brings though his Parisian jazz stronghold, and the pair lay down some unmissable Dingwalls-reminiscent gems. In fact, this is the perfect sort of album for those diggers looking for that perfect jazz-funk record, the one that slipped away; the drumming across all of the tracks is hypnotic but changes enough to retain that mysticism, the pianos glide over the melodies in a delicate but playful way, and Farrar's vocals are an utter beauty spilled all over the rhythm. A must have, and a warmly recommended album. Supported by Mukatsuku.

Review: The concept behind this new collection on BBE is a simple but effective one: sommelier Frederic Beneix has picked out a selection of wines, and beat maker DJ Cam has dug deep to serve up some rare but fitting musical accompaniments that were produced in the same year. Wine4Melomanes, therefore, is a unique collection of sounds from all over Europe that connects the complexity and sensuality of a tipple with the rhythm and melody of a song. Most are lush and sophisticated jazz cuts that sound good whether you're drinking or not. Delicious.

Review: With a current tour including a date at London's Brixton Academy, it's safe to say that this New Zealand seven piece are big news. This could have something to do with the universal good times vibes of their output. Here, the self-proclaimed 'heavyweight soul providers' are back with album number three and it sees them delve pushing their sound deeper into the realms of Afrocentric, dubby electronica. Highlights include the brassy, sunny ska of the title track, "Blackbird", the electro-funk of "Silver & Gold" and the pulsating digital disco of "Never Moving".

Review: FKJ's glossy brand of instrumental funk and soul has reached many a great height, so now it's high time we looked back on the artist's roots. 'French Kiwi Juice' was his first album, showing off the artist's incredible multi-instrumental chops. Super-sweet yet also tart sonic juices from the Franco-New Zealander, returning to this exclusive vinyl pressing.

Review: We've been waiting on this one since "J&W Beat" six years ago; there's something about Floating Points sound that instantly lends itself to full-length album immersion. It's clear he feels this way too; using the album to delve deeper into electronic deconstructions and delicate ensemble arrangements. At its most adventurous and contemporary classical "Argente" is up there with Frahm, at is dreamiest and jazz-influenced "For Marmish" is a deeply cosmic affair with disparate chords making more sense than they perhaps should. At its most traditional Floating Points we hit the finale "Perotation Six" where the brushed drums are buried under layers of sound and elements in a way that's not dissimilar to Radiohead. Well worth the wait.

Review: Last October, acclaimed saxophonist Pharoah Sanders turned 80 years young, and his input on this album is testimony to the fact he has clearly aged like a fine wine. Not that this is to suggest preceding outings were anything less worthy than this collaborative project, which sees Sam Shepherd, the British electronic artist better known to most as Floating Points, write nine spectacular arrangements which are then performed by said brass legend, alongside The London Symphony Orchestra.

The results are spectacular, and wildly far-reaching, albeit firmly rooted in jazz with classical undertones. From the movements that made this final cut, some are whisper quiet and delicate to the point of risking breaking off if you were handling haphazardly. Others are booming loud, musical jumbo jets landing at the end of another great crescendo. Whether hushed or monumental, though, we can feel every note and bar of this masterpiece.

Review: Arriving with some truly mind bending artwork from controversial guro manga artist Shintaro Kago, the new Flying Lotus album You're Dead! Is quite alot to take in upon first listen. Some nineteen tracks deep, Steven Ellison uses all the available space to draw you deep into the afterlife as he sees it, veering through heavily psychedelic jazz passages and next level beat explorations that demand you pay full attention. The iconic Herbie Hancock leads a high profile cast of contributing artists to Fly Lo's fifth studio LP and his most ambitious to date with Kendrick Lamar, Captain Murphy, Snoop Dogg, Angel Deradoorian, Thundercat and Niki Randa also adding to what is a transcendental listening experience.

Review: Released back in 2003, Rounds was the third LP from Kieran Hebden as Four Tet and perhaps the first long player that widely established him as a pioneering voice within electronic music. Though it doesn't feel like a decade since it was released, Domino celebrate the album's tenth anniversary in requisite fashion here, reissuing it in double LP format and slipping in a CD of Four Tet performing live in Copenhagen in 2004. Listening back now, it's easy to understand why Rounds is viewed as an early classic in the Four Tet canon, transferring his love for free jazz records to a beat template that's more palatable on the ear (Fact pickers might want to know that Hebden recently revealed to Pitchfork the LP was made entirely from samples) "She Moves She" still sounds absolutely haunting too!