Juno Recommends Brokenbeat / Nu Jazz May 2018

Review: From his early releases for the mythical Greta Cottage Workshop, outsider house specialist Arnheim has come a long way, and his own Barbara Recordings is now on its way to ruling the downtempo game! In fact, Arnheim's sound are more on the inside than the outside, if this new EP is anything to go by; "Get On With The Looking" is on a Mahogani Music tip, while "Do You Know" stutters its off-kilter groove with magnificent elegance, and "Becoming Welcome" breaks out some fine jazz melodies in what sounds like a truly well-balanced piece of music that sits outside of the generic 'club' atmosphere. Quality assured.

Review: Two years on from the release of Modifications: Set 1, Adam Scrimshire and Dave Koor join forces once more as Modified Man. This second "Set" explores similar sonic territory to its predecessor, with the duo delivering jaunty, semi-improvised cuts that mix Herbie Hancock style jazz-funk synthesizer work and sparkling, Dam Funk style sounds with beats and basslines that variously draw inspiration from dusty, sample-rich deep house, L.A experimental hip-hop, dub, broken beat (the ace "Croydon Rooftop Cafe Culture") and intergalactic space jazz (starburst closer "Thorns"). It takes a few listens to really get to grips with all of the duo's musical intricacies, but it's definitely worth the effort.

Review: Carol Sawall, Jimmy Ellis, Tyler Mitchell, Usama Pitts and, of course, Paris Smith himself make up the legendary - and much overlooked - The Paris Smith Quintet, and are famed for the infamous Thought Seeds LP that came out on Oracle Records way back in 1983. While they have all done their own thing on the side, this particular album has reached cult fandom in the free-jazz category, and is still referenced by many as the 'one'. Norway's Jazzagression have reissued it in all its glory, and have also put out a single comprised of its tow best cuts, "Thought Seeds" and "Lilith Came". The former is a moody, powerful track with a danceable bassline, while the latter fades the drums and energy into a marvelously placid wave of melodies and harmony. Wonderful.

Review: As a member of Stepak-Takraw, Yoichi Takeuch has spent much of his career crafting material heavily influenced by 1970s Afrobeat. On this debut solo single he takes a different approach, crafting warm, sun-kissed and blissful grooves with the benefit of what sounds like an MPC workstation. Check first A-side "Nightrunning", a dreamy and decidedly Balearic affair where chopped-up vocal snippets and guitar motifs rise above a hip-hop-goes-polyrhythmic groove. There's a slightly jazzier feel to flipside "Omo", whose slack, post Tony Allen drum break is layered with chanted childrens' vocals, sun-bright guitar flourishes and toasty, head-in-the-clouds chords. It's hard to describe, but really rather good.

Review: This brilliant album sees United Future Organisation co-founder Toshio Matsura re-imagine a string of influential and classic club cuts with the assistance of Sons of Kemet maestro Tom Skinner and some of Britain's best young jazz musicians. Thrillingly, for the most part the resultant covers are remarkably radical, offering brilliant interpretations of very well known records. For example, Flying Lotus's "Do The Astral Plane" is re-cast as a cheery jazz-funk workout, Carl Craig's "At Les" becomes a blissed-out chunk of Philip Glass style synthesizer minimalism and Roni Size Reprazent's "Brown Paper Bag" resurfaces as a creepy jazz standard. And that's before we get to the inspired jazz-rock wig-out that is the group's version of Rotary Connection standard "I Am The Black Gold of the Sun".