Back in stock: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Back Pluwatsch, or simply Bajka, is an Indian-born, South-African raised singer with diverse catalogue of music, and an equally compelling set of vocal chords. Her voice was first picked up by London's Jazzman circa 2005, and has travelled across other like like Ubiquity, Raw Tapes, and even on NYC house-techno conglomerate, Ibadan. Philophon feels like a much more natural place for her music to prosper on, a label that's been on our radar since day one, and always comes heavily recommended. "The World" is a true pearl of a song, charged and catapulted into the ether by a deep, raw percussive sway and, of course, Bajka's singular voice. "Invisible Joy" is a similarly deep and tropical, but here the tone is much more jazzy, reminding us of Sun Ra in places. All in all, this is some pretty killer material.

Review: Earlier this month, First Word Records dropped an epic, digital-only compilation in which members of the label's large family of artists either collaborated with or remixed each other. This 12" boasts four of the collection's undoubted highlights. The EP begins with a simply stunning Kaidi Tatham remix of Allysha Joy's soul-jazz treat 'Better' - think deep broken beat meets liquid jazz-funk and sultry neo-soul - and ends with a fiercely sub-heavy and surprisingly spaced out K15 broken beat rework of Teotima's 'But I Can't'. Sandwiched in between you'll find a jazz-funk-goes-bruk re-wire of Takuya Kuroda's 'Fade' by KEARL (that's K15 and Darkhouse Family's Earl Jeffers) and a wonderful fusion of squelchy synth-jazz and broken beat courtesy of Quiet Dawn and Sarah Williams White.