Back catalogue: Funk Soul & Jazz

Review: French label Battle Weapons does it again here with another superb reissue of a dynamic fusion of vintage soul-jazz and catchy beats. They come from Hardly Subtle featuring Peggy Lee, whose iconic vocals soar over Hardly's masterful production to utterly alluring effect. The track pulsates with a gently infectious energy and infuses organic drums with modern electronic rhythms. It is a great one among many from Peggy Lee, and on the flipside you're treated to a superb Wonderlove edit of her sumptuous take on the Otis Reding classic 'Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay'.

Review: Brainfeeder serves up this new 12" from Hiatus Kaiyote which finds them diving ever deeper into their own idiosyncratic world of jazzy electronics and expansive grooves. The Australian funk outfit has been nominated twice for a Grammy and their Mood Valiant album was critically acclaimed by all. The pick of this limited green vinyl is the title track 'Canopic Jar' with its lurching beats, twisted guitars and stained lead vocal. It comes as an instrumental and an Capella while the opener 'Journey To The Crystal Tomb' is a short but sweet passage of haunting ambient.

Review: The upcoming second solo studio album by US singer-songwriter and guitarist Brittany Howard (of Alabama Shakes fame), What Now follows up Jaime and its Reimagined edition, striking out with a fierce, "truest and bluest", nigh "brutal" lyricism, in which Howard addresses the titular question - "what now?" - and how today's society might respond. Written, of course, during the height of the pandemic, when such doubts were excised and up in the air (and more so than usual), the album's sonic aesthetic spans full-bodied funk, psychedelic chord progressions, and a powerful bombast. The overall answer sounds to be: move through it; surrender to "the now", gracefully.

Review: The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was created by Madlib and Egon over the course of the Pandemic, and was a chance to give their creative friends the ability to stretch out and indulge in whatever type of music they wanted for release on the label. The music had to be great and able to be presented as a standalone album, just like the best 'Music Library' releases of the past, be they on labels like Italy's Sermi, Germany's Bruton, France's MP2000 and the UK's DeWolfe. And, like those albums, it had to work as easy, one-stop clearance for background cues in film and television production and, as producers have been indulging since the 1990s, for sampling. Joe Harrison's top-up to the series is just one of many, and brings a heated, undeniably infectious array of instrumentals to the table, all of which we're sure will be put to good use in the decades to come.

Review: When Keyon Harrold lists the influences that he turned to during the creation of his rich and evocative new album Foreverland, he cites the likes of Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, Fela Kuti, John Coltrane, and, for a second, he becomes vulnerable; the list is too basic, too serious-music-listener-starter-pack. But, out of that moment of insecurity, he spins an indelible flex: "You are what you eat, and I have a pretty strict diet in dope shit. Taking in Keyon Harrold's career to-date, it's clear that the 'world-class trumpeter' (Essence) and composer is very serious about that diet. He's a jazz musician but in the most expansive sense, working with a list of dream collaborators: generational legends Keith Richards and Diana Ross; rap stars like Mac Miller and Nas; neo-soul icons Erykah Badu and D'Angelo; and modern soul stars Black Pumas and Leon Bridges. His circle of regular collaborators is formidable and includes his music industry mentor Common (who hired him for his first touring gig), his New School classmate Robert Glasper, and GRAMMY winners Maxwell, PJ Morton, Gregory Porter, and YEBBA. Even apart from its compositional intricacies and stylistic innovations, Foreverland is a triumph of resilience and empowerment. "What will be said when you're gone?", says Keyon. "If you're not living life - getting beat up, getting your heart broken, winning, losing - what are you doing? What about your life can people learn from? If you don't put yourself in the ring sometimes, there won't be anything." On Foreverland, Keyon takes life's challenges head-on - and emerges, in both music and in life, with a renewed sense of purpose.

Review: Seven years since its initial release, this is the deluxe repressing of 'Choose Your Weapon' by Australian jazz/funk band Hiatus Kaiyote. The Grammy-nominated four-piece's second LP returns to stereos with this 18-track, 70-minute odyssey that takes listeners on a journey through the group's self-created ecosystem, populated with songs each embodying its own mini-cinematic sonic soundscape. Pressed on gorgeous photoluminescent vinyl, paired with a bonus 7" featuring a Roman Soto Cello rework of side B's 'Breathing Underwater' and a genius club mix of 'Making Friends with Studio Owl', the second half of the interlude from the original - a highpoint in sound.

Review: Shafiq Husayn has been a driving force on the Los Angeles music scene for decades. He is a producer, songwriter and vocalist who is part of the agenda setting trio Sa-Ra Creative Partners and has produced for greats like Erykah Badu, Robert Glasper, Ice-T, Bilal and Jurassic 5. The Grammy winner is also leader of the expansive The Dove Society collective with whom he links here for a new album So Gold. It's an eclectic, love-fulled fusion of jazz, cosmic soul, hip hop and r&b that is packed with lush musicianship, smooth vocal flows and timeless grooves.