Hanna

Review: Jazz-wise deep house and downtempo producer Hanna has a string of fine albums to his name stretching back to the tail end of the '90s. Bless, though, is his first full-length since 2008, and sees the Cleveland, Ohio man transfer to Theo Parrish's legendary Sound Signature imprint. Each of the album's ten tracks comes dripping in hazy, late night soul, as Hanna smoothly shuffles between hazy nu-jazz explorations and various strains of sensual deep house. For the DJs there are plenty of floor-friendly moments, while the inclusion of a string of groovier downtempo workouts should please the home listening posse.

Review: People of Earth proudly presents Warren Harris aka . Blessing us with a 4 track EP titled "From the Dark Sky". Delivering his signature bass licks and providing us with a vocal track on top of it all in "Last Forever". Hints of jazz, gospel and straight deep house throughout the record, all beautiful, uplifting and full of purpose.

Review: Chicago's Perpetual Rhythms label scores a coup in welcoming the inimitable Warren Harris to present what appears to be three separate installments of his honey coated house abstractions. "Poom" wastes no time in confirming that Harris' work as Hanna is unrivalled for off-the-wall rhythmic constructions that truly channel the freedom of jazz into the house stratosphere. "Bucktown" is no slouch in this regard either, while the swirling smoothness of the synths makes the spiky drum science taste all the sweeter. "Wicker Park" seems to take some influence from the West London broken beat scene, and then "Nuance" swoops in with yet more bruk action and some truly space age melodic content that marks this out as one of Hanna's strongest efforts in recent times.

Review: Back in the early-to-mid 2000s, Warren Harris AKA Hanna was responsible for making and releasing some of the most sumptuous and seductive blends of future jazz, broken beat, soul and deep house around. This 12" from Melodies International offers a neat reminder by serving up two tracks previously featured on a CD-only album from 2004. A-side "I Needed" is the clear standout: a glassy-eyed and loved-up slab of jaunty dancefloor deep house that combines the swing of future garage and the snappiness of jacking Chicago house with the smoothness of soul and the kaleidoscopic synthesizer lines of jazz-funk. Flipside "Intercession, On Behalf" is similarly minded with more of an emphasis on vibrant jazz-funk and the soul motifs and the soul-powered swing of U.S garage.

Review: Alex Attias' Visions Inc imprint has decided to launch a new multi-artist EP series. Happily, the first "Phase" in the "Evolution" series - they've promised three more this year - delivers a suitably strong start. Patrice Scott sets a high benchmark with opener "Rain Dance", a wonderfully warm fusion of elastic deep house beats, spacey electronic motifs and tactile Rhodes chords, before Kai Alce breaks up the beats a little on his effortlessly soulful, jazz-funk influenced revision of "Stay My Way" by Kemetic Just presents Justone. Hanna's flipside opener "Heist" is suitably deep, starry, groovy and soulful, while Reekee's "Let It Make" is a musically rich affair full of jazz-funk bass, fizzing synths, far-sighted chords and bustling beats that sit somewhere between broken beat and breakbeat house.