Review: The Jakarta label out of Germany serves up constantly high quality beats from across the hip hop and downtempo spectrum. Gianni Brezzo is a jazz affiliated bandana studio project helmed by Cologne-based producer & creative maestro Marvin Horsch and their new long player 'Tutto Passa' was made in homage to and respect of Italian culture. Horsch spent time researching Italian composers of the 60s and 70s before staring work on the record and it show sin the lush melodies, sweeping synth sounds and Library music vibes of this most exquisite record of instrumental chill.
Review: London's Original Gravity label is a trusted source for soul, funk and reggae 45s, and they're back with this seriously hot one from Mafumu. The project is a collaboration between Neil Anderson and Max Jere of The Umoza Music Project, based in Senga Bay on Lake Malawi. On the A side track you can hear Jere singing in Malawi's main language of Chichewa, urging listeners to "vina!" which means 'dance'. It's unmistakably Afro funk, with blasts of horns and a rolling, hypnotic groove that suck you in immediately. On the flip Anderson takes over for the instrumental 'Mkondo Wa Moto', which leans in on the talking drum and lays some funk and and Latin touches into the mix.
Review: While it's a cliche to describe Balearic-minded releases as being "sun-soaked" and "sunset-ready", they're both descriptors that accurately reflect the gorgeously warm, melodious and laidback sound of Japanese outfit Coastlines. Their second self-titled album is every bit as inspired as its predecessor and offers a range of tracks built around layered, intricate instrumentation, gently shuffling rhythms and vivid daydreams about beachside walks in sunnier climes. Our picks of a very strong bunch include the Andreas Vollenweider-inspired slo-mo Latin shuffle of 'Tenderly', the blazed deep jazz-funk of 'Alicia', the piano-laden early morning wonder of 'Night Cruise' and the squelchy future boogie of 'Sky Island'. In a word: sumptuous!
Review: Less than 10 months have passed since the release of Matt Lord and Dennis 'Dego' McFarland's first collaborative album, but the long-serving duo have already readied album number two. The pair have been working together on-and-off for years and are clearly kindred spirits, at least musically. There's a warmth, looseness and pleasingly effortless feel about much of the material on show, which - like much 2000 Black crew material of recent years - adds luscious synthesizer and electric piano motifs to rubbery bass guitar parts and crunchy beats. It's naturally rooted in broken beat, but rhythmically also pays homage to jazz-funk, hip-hop, Azymuth-esque jazz fusion and boogie. It also includes an excellent, acid-flecked collaboration with mutual friend (and fellow bruk stalwart) Domu.
I Hear Music In The Streets (Expansions NYC dub) (4:51)
I Hear Music In The Streets (LV Classic Boogie mix) (6:33)
Review: It would be fair to say that post-disco outfit Unlimited Touch's 1980 single "I Hear Music In the Streets" is one of the greatest boogie/electrofunk records of all time. Louie Vega clearly agrees, because late last year he decided to gather together the remaining members of Unlimited Touch and record a fresh 2020 version. The A-side "Touch Mix" is the bomb. It features a more organic-sounding disco-boogie groove than the 1980 original, with delicious guitars, bass and electric piano/organ underpinning seriously good group vocals from the sometime Prelude-signed outfit. Over on the flip, Vega serves up an electric piano solo-laden dub mix, as well as a "Classic Boogie" take that naturally sounds very similar to the band's much-loved original version.
Who Chooses The Seasons (feat Carleen Anderson) (4:59)
Best By Far (4:00)
Winner (3:39)
Be Thankful (feat Erykah Badu) (4:04)
Tell Me (4:00)
Syleste (Lounge Lizzard mix) (3:54)
Feeling You (feat Stevie Wonder) (4:43)
It's So (4:32)
Come On (feat Kele LeRoc) (4:50)
Treat You (feat Caron Wheeler) (3:34)
The Man (4:15)
Fuck War, Make Love (3:24)
Bully (feat The Scratch Professer) (3:56)
I Love Being With You (3:34)
Simplify (3:18)
Gave My Heart (feat Leon Ware) (3:36)
Doobie Doobie Doo (4:02)
Insatiable (feat Natasha Watts) (5:16)
De Ja Vu (feat Mayra Andrade) (3:25)
I Want It To Be (3:44)
This Is Not A Love Song (4:47)
Outside (5:42)
Review: Much loved and influential UK soul legend Omar Lyefook - who has been awarded an MBE for his contributions to the music world - put out his seminal 33 track anthology back in 2020. It came on Freestyle Records and now makes it to wax, with all of his classic collaborations incuded as well as his most notable hit, 'There's Nothing Like This,' as well as 'It's So,' the big, floor facing cut that always amps up any club with its bristling drum work taking cues from the sounds Omar heard at The Notting Hill Carnival. There are plenty of lesser known gems form the evergreen star, too, plus exclusive and previously unheard tracks 'Pass It On' ft Terri Walker and 'Long Time Coming.'
Review: Fresh from making his first appearance on the party-starting Resense series, Shin-Ski (real name Shinsuke Taoka) delivers a rare, four-track "45" featuring a bunch of previously unheard productions from his jam-packed hard drive. He starts as he means to go on with 'On & On', a head-nodding hip-hop club cut crafted from bits of an old soul floor-filler, before smothering another toe-tapping beat with mazy electric piano solos on 'Classic'. Over on the flip, 'Beach' sees the Japanese veteran wrap a boom-bap beat and funky bassline in flanged guitar licks, while closing cut 'That Jazz' more than lives up to its descriptive title. Loose, groovy and musically rich, it should please anyone who loved Guru's classic Jazzamatazz productions.
Review: In our eyes, Kaidi Tatham can do no wrong. The long-serving keyboardist barely seems to sleep and releases a high volume of collaborations and solo records, but his quality threshold is so high that there's barely a duff track in his catalogue. Over the last few years he's developed a trademark sound that wraps Herbie Hancock style jazz-funk keys around crunchy broken beats, while also drawing influence from hip-hop, '80s electro, boogie, Latin jazz and slick deep house. An Insight Into All Minds, the veteran musician's fifth solo album, is naturally rooted in this trademark style, offering up a collection of cuts that bristle with positivity, pack plenty of punch, and are as well produced and life-affirming as you'd expect. It's a high bar, but it could well be his single best LP to date.
Review: Has it really been five years since Migration? Time has flown, but the evergreen appeal of Bonobo holds true as he lands back on his spiritual home of Ninja Tune with another hotly anticipated opus. Fragments finds Simon Green digging deep, having forced himself to work outside of his usual tour-centric comfort zone during the global shutdown and developing a lot of new material in the isolation of the Californian desert. While that air of solitude formed a foundation for the album, he then folded in ample collaborations from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Jordan Rakei, O'Flynn, Joji and Kadhja Bonet, resulting in a stirring soul soup of richly developed, danceable rhythms and patient musicality with that unmistakable Bonobo touch.
Review: Anyone who has seen Nigerian saxophonist Bukky Leo perform with his backing band Black Egypt will tell you how incendiary they are live, frequently delivering performances that blur the boundaries between Afrobeat, Afro-jazz and Afro-funk. It's fitting then that Bukky and his band's latest release is a live album made up entirely of their interpretations of tracks from legendary Nigerian musician William Onyeabor. It's simply superb, with the ensemble's wonderfully laidback Afrobeat interpretation of 'Atomic Bomb', a rousing, dance-along romp through 'Good Name' and an insatiable, deliciously low-slung shuffle through sensual classic 'Body & Soul' belong amongst the many musical highlights.
Review: Given their shared musical heritage - both are members of the extended Firecracker Recordings crew - it's perhaps something of a surprise to find that Face The Facts marks the first serious collaboration between Linkwood and Gav 'Fudge Fingaz' Sutherland AKA Other Lands. It's less surprising that the album is really, really good. Touching on warming synth-boogie, head-nodding downtempo jams, mutant beatdown, Balearic beats, sunset-ready soundscapes and warming analogue deep house, the 13-track set is notable for the pair's extensive use of dusty old drum machines, tactile instrumentation (think smooth Rhodes solos, languid guitar solos and blissed-out synths) and Sutherland's hazy, sometimes seductive singing voice.
Review: Fresh from dropping another essential seven-inch with his regular Sound Combo band, Misha Paniflov has joined forces with fellow multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee for a string of collaborative singles. This "45" sports two genuinely impressive cuts, each full to bursting with quality live instrumentation. It opens with 'Sigmund Jahn Bossa', a superb fusion of late 1960s library jazz (think Roy Budd's score for Get Carter and you're in the right ballpark), bustling bossa-nova and spiralling psych-funk. Over on the flip the pair continue to deliver lounge, influenced, tongue-in-cheek thrills via the cheap, Sideman drum machine rhythms, tumbling guitars, elongated Hammond organ chords and hazy backing vocals of 'Aquaria'.
The Midnight Hour - "Jazz Is Dead" (Georgia Anne Muldrow Geemix) (2:42)
Joao Donato - "Desejo De Amor" (Akili remix) (1:49)
Joao Donato - "Liaisons" (Dibiase remix) (6:03)
Azymuth - "Rendor Do Samba" (DJ Spinna remix) (5:27)
Review: Since launching the Jazz is Dead series two years ago, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muuhammad have released eight studio albums - each a collaboration with a different figure from the jazz and soul spectrum - and a compilation of instrumental takes. It makes sense, then, that volume 10 is a remix album, with a variety of producers putting their stamp on cuts from the pair's expansive joint catalogue. As you'd expect, it's packed to the rafters with killer hip-hop, downtempo and broken beat reworks, with highlights including Cut Chemist's head-nodding, cinematic hip-hop take on Gary Bartz hook-up 'Soulsea', Shigeto's contemporary spiritual jazz revision of Brian Jackson co-production 'Nacy Wilson', and DJ Spinna's squelchy, house-not-house rub of Azymouth collaboration 'Rendor Do Samba'. Soulful, jazz-fired perfection.
Review: A decade after it first surfaced on CD and digital, Kaidi Tatham's superb contribution to Jazz:Refreshed's now legendary 5ive series of mini-albums has finally made it onto vinyl. We don't expect these to hang around in stock too long, in part because it's one of the most consistently on-point and musically expansive sets in Tatham's vast catalogue - and that's saying something. For proof, check the soulful bruk-up business of 'To My Surprise' (reminiscent of the best of the collective Bugz in the Attic project he was a big part of), the fluid, spiritual jazz-funk brilliance of opener 'Don't Hide Your Love' and the expansive, up-tempo excellence of 'Organic Juggernaut', where fluttering flutes, squelchy bass and sparkling pianos catch the ear.
Review: The legendary Red Astaire aka Freddie Cruger has long been dropping red hot beats. His Biggest for the Needy series is well loved by beat freaks and now he serves up a whole double album of crucial instrumentals on his home label House of Godis. These tunes are infused with the sounds and styles that have defined Red's whole career such as 80s break dancing vibes, boogie and plenty of rap, electro and disco. It's sure to get those rumps wiggling whether digested as a whole album or used by DJs in the club.
Review: Instrumental beats don't get much slicker than those cooked up here by Ken Long. It is a different take on his Version Control album that goes deep into Roland arps and thick electric pianos. The individual tracks are short but they all add up to a coherent story that ranges from lounges late night beats to more spacious and pensive moments of cosmic introspection. The frayed edges and analogue textures lend it an air of authenticity that Long usually gives to the other acts he spends time producing. Originally made on cassette, it features SP1200 grooves and percussion, plenty of lush reverb and space echo and adds up to an immersive listen.
Dead Man's Tetris (feat Captain Murphy & Snoop Dogg)
Turkey Dog Coma
Stirring
Coronus, The Terminator
Siren Song (feat Angel Deradoorian)
Turtles
Ready Err Not
Eyes Above
Moment Of Hesitation (feat Herbie Hancock)
Descent Into Madness (feat Thundercat)
The Boys Who Died In Their Sleep (feat Captain Murphy)
Obligatory Cadence
Your Potential/The Beyond (feat Niki Randa)
The Protest
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: As part of his Gondwana label's 10th anniversary, masterful Manchester trumpeter and contemporary jazz trendsetter Matthew Halsall has put together a special deluxe edition of his beautiful "Colour Yes" album with thick reverse board sleeves, silver block letter foiling and two printed inner sleeves. First released in 2009, the album showcases Halsall's deeply emotive style across the 8 achingly good, supremely spiritual tracks that glow with gorgeous piano playing, gently lilting drums and his own fantastic leads.
Review: This Record Store Blanc Friday, US label Madlib Invasion serves up a CD version of this most classic of albums from Jackson Conti aka the one and only beat making behemoth Madlib with Mamao. Sujinho landed in 2008 and since then has often been heralded as one of the best few projects Madlib has ever been involved with. It is a smooth fusion of hip hop, jazz, Latin and soul that, on vinyl, has fetched eye watering high prices until now. A new reissue has landed on wax as well as this CD.
Review: Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder is Recoil. This musical project found him landing on Mute with a great series of albums including the likes of Liquid and Unsound Methods as well as his sixth LP, subHuman. This one dates back to 2006 and came after a 6-year break from recording. It is dark and broody electronic music "which sets the listener a challenge to analyse what makes us human and subHuman." It's a collaboration with bluesman Joe Richardson who served up guitars as well as harmonica and eerie vocals. Themes in the record include murder, death, and religion while guest singer Carla Trevaskis did a fine job of serving up ethereal sound on 'Allelujah'.
Review: Since releasing his second album in 2013, James Blake has become one of the most in-demand artists and producers on the planet, recently appearing on Beyonce's much-hyped "visual album", Lemonade. On The Colour In Anything, it's very much business as usual, with Blake only occasionally veering away from his drowsy, atmospheric, piano-and-vocal template. These variations on a theme - the subtle, 4/4 techno-pop of opener "Radio Silence", the autotune-sporting R&B pop of "I Need A Forest Fire", tactile warmth of "Always", and frankly quite odd accapella throw-down "Meet You In The Maze" - add interest, though Blake remains at his best when concentrating on his most emotion-rich and heart-aching songs.
Street Dreams (feat Miguel Atwood Ferguson) (2:12)
One More Time (3:10)
1989 (feat Miguel Atwood Ferguson) (3:25)
Toulouse (feat Miguel Atwood Ferguson) (2:48)
Pigalle (6:11)
Big Rick (3:29)
Save Me
Mr Wu (3:37)
Hold On (feat Lauren Faith) (3:12)
Early Prayer (5:02)
Review: Given that keyboardist and producer Kamaal Williams' 2018 debut album "The Return" was such a rip-roaring success critically and commercially, hopes are naturally sky-high for this delayed sequel. Happily, we can confirm that Williams has arguably excelled himself on "Wu Hen", once again blurring the boundaries between jazz-funk, seductive downtempo grooves, hazy space jazz, deep house influenced dancefloor workouts (see "Mr Wu", whose title references his other artistic alias, Henry Wu) and soft-focus soul - all with the assistance of an expanded line-up of guest musicians and vocalists. Perhaps the biggest impact is made by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, a composer whose string arrangements add an ear-catching new dimension to Williams work. Stunning stuff all told.
Review: People of Earth shakes things up for #016 with a limited 12" from Charolastra entitled Karuna. Only 200 copies pressed of this continuous play, crossover jazz release. Brought to the realization with some of ATLANTA's most talented instrumentalists. It is an amalgamation of genres but the underlying emotions are immediately recognizable. Grief, loss, regret and the transcendental power of the spirit to overcome these hardships. Blending elements of jazz, IDM, broken beat, drone, and dub, while it may be difficult to put your finger on Karuna it doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
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