Back catalogue: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz

Review: Bedroom beat producer Blank Check has teamed up with Honolulu's Aloha Got Soul and Tokyo's Grand Gallery for this majestic new six-song EP which comes on tidy 10" vinyl. It's mega limited with only 300 copies produced and it showcases loop-based music that evokes a floating sensation, which is reminiscent, say the accompanying notes, of Tommy Guerrero's world view. The instrumental sound features a dub-like quality that perfectly captures an urban mellow vibe that feels both original and authentic. Essentially it serves as a soundtrack to a short film that immerses you in atmospheric and cinematic soundscapes.

Review: Solene and J. Rawls team up for a delicious pair of pelagic, coolant nu-soul and house nocturnes, crossing the sparse but oceanic space between genres. On 'Love Moon', the producer and singer respectively cover such intense themes as late-night reflectivity and good company: "nothing glam, it's just you and me..." Solene intones this sombrely, as the last syllable is heard to trail off into a surfactant mist. Meanwhile, 'Can't Catch Me In Love' raises the emotive drawbridge once more, hoisting supporting pillars of kick drum and serene pan flute, as flirtatious gingerbread taunts are heard in the chorus, not to mention musings on past relationship blunders.

Review: At legendary jazzdance hubs like London's Horseshoe and Camden's Electric Ballroom, one track ruled the floor: Hino Terumasa's 'Merry-Go-Round', pulled from the Japanese trumpeter's 'Double Rainbow' album. A bass-driven jass fusion storm, it sent dancers into a frenzy, tending fast down a psychedelic jazz mountain. A staple of BBE's J Jazz compilation, 'Merry-Go-Round' was Paul Murphy's top pick for a fresh rework, heard here from Niknak. Rising to the challenge, Takumi assembled top-tier musicians to craft an electrifying tribute; eight minutes of unrelenting, steam-hammer funk, pushing jazz dance energy to its limits.

Review: Matching breezy, Bossa nova-tinged sophistication with softly spiralling psychedelia, Testbild! arrive in the Quindi lounge as though they've always been there. Bed Stilt is their latest, anagrammatic album, on which the Swedish collective cast their minds back over their entire careers, all the way back to the earliest days of their 25-year trip through sweetly mysterious pop-not-pop, rendered in warm tones and shot through with surrealism. At once nostalgic for the sleepy neo-psych rock realisations of 90s Malmo - yet also unconsciously nodding to the potents of an incarnation of the sound yet to come - the likes of 'And Her Eyes Are Red', through to the farmyard dream scenario of 'Soft Winged & Frail' and finally absurd bemusement 'Water On The Moon', meet us with an unconscious flight of fancy, teeming with psychic quirks and happily irresolute instrumental combinations, from banjo to Mellotron Mikro to vibraphonette.