Broken Beat/Nu Jazz charts

Review: Cleo Sol's long-promised debut album, which hit record stores in mid-2020, was a genuinely impressive set: a fine collection of soft-focus jazz, neo-soul and R&B songs that did a great job in showcasing her talents as both a singer and songwriter. Inspired in part by Sol's experiences as a new mother, it's another superb collection of deliciously sweet and soulful songs that should resonate far beyond Sol's growing band of fans. Musically sparse but detailed - think shuffling acoustic guitars, languid beats, ear-catching electronic melodies, twinkling painos and sumptupus bass - Mother is perhaps a more obviously "neo-soul"-themed effort than its predecessor, but that's no bad thing. It has the feel of an album that will be considered a British soul classic in years to come.

Review: Camae Ayewa AKA Moor Mother has long talked about wanting to work with an orchestra, applying her verbal Afro-futurism and free-jazz experimentation to the classical domain. She recently did just that, delivering a grandiose live interpretation of her ninth album, The Great Bailout, alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra. It makes perfect sense: while the album itself is not fully orchestrated, it's a conceptual work dissecting the British slave trade, slavery and colonialism. Musically, there are two central focal points: her spoken word vocals and the beautiful singing of Lonnie Haley. These two vital voices weave in and out of sound worlds rooted in dark ambient, lo-fi hip-hop beats, free jazz instrumentation, out-there samples and clandestine aural textures. It's naturally raw, moody and weighty, but more importantly it's also a genuine masterpiece that deserves your attention.

Review: Specter remains a steadfast pillar among the select artists on Theo Parrish's esteemed Sound Signature label. His latest album, Brutus, reaffirms the trust placed in him, delivering a distinct blend of house sounds. In this CD version, Specter masterfully fuses synthetic and organic elements, echoing the signature style of Parrish. Much like Parrish's own compositions, the house sounds on Brutus exhibit a harmonious blend of weathered, rustic tones and vibrant, futuristic visions. Specter injects profound meaning into his melodies, and the drums, whether subtle and elusive or bold and confrontational, consistently captivate, locking listeners into the rich tapestry of his grooves.

Review: Mildlife's reputation has soared since the release of their last studio album, 2020's Automatic, with the Melbourne trio's every musical move now being watched with bated breath by a global fanbase. Chorus is built on a concept of sorts - "a coming together of disparate elements" and "cosmic compatibility and chemistry" according to the band - but as ever it's the quality of the music on offer that really hits home hard. Warm and optimistic, with nods to West Coast jazz-rock as well as space rock, kosmiche, blue-eyed soul and jazz-funk, it sounds more nuanced, sonically detailed and wide-eyed than their previous work. Highlights include, but are in no way limited to, the yacht rock-leaning 'Yourself', the cosmic disco-influenced wonder of 'Musica', and epic recent single 'Return to Centraus'.

Review: Unfairly labelled as a novel curio when they first emerged, the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band is a genuine expression of Mighty Mocambos man Bjorn Wagner's love of Trinidadian steel pan music. Their tracks - often, but not always, quirky cover versions - combined authentic funk instrumentation (drums, bass, guitar, horns) with the timeless and distinctive sound of steel drums. BRSB, the combo's fourth album, is another summery and effortlessly entertaining treat. Highlights include the inspired 'Love For The Sake of Dub' (an organic interpretation of Claudja Barry's slo-mo disco classic 'Love For The Sake of Love'), the breaker-friendly cheeriness and heaviness of 'Grilled', a wonderfully woozy and dubbed out stroll through the 'Stranger Things Theme', and the summer sunshine of 'Champion's Walk'.

Review: Remote working is not new - artists have collaborated by exchanging files since Internet connection speeds allowed it - but few have pursued it more enthusiastically than Sons of the Sun, a duo made up of South East London beat-maker/multi-instrumentalist Maverick Quest and Texas-based singer and rapper JTronius. The duo initially met online and decided to spark up a Transatlantic collaboration. The results, as showcased on this fine debut album, are rarely less than inspired. Casually joining the dots between future soul, synth-powered P-funk, Afrobeat, jazz and hip-hop, it's a set that oozes musical quality from start to finish. At times it sounds a little like Plantlife or Thundercat, at other times like a hip-hop head's take on 21st century London jazz; throughout, you'll be royally entertained.

Review: Back in the summer of 2022, BBC Radio 3 asked fourth world legend and all-round avant-garde musical hero Ariel Kalma to pick artists he'd never met to collaborate with. He chose Jeremiah Chu and Marta Sofia Honer. Following the radio broadcast in the autumn of '22, the trio continued making music together and this is the result: a brilliant, impossible-to-pigeonhole affair that combines snatches of improvised performances from each musician with elements of recordings Kalma made in the 1970s, speech samples, droning tones, ambient electronics and much more besides. It's not jazz, ambient, fourth world or abstract electronica, but something that sits in the fuzzy gaps in between. More importantly, it's sonically superb - a coherent and inspired piece of work that gets the most out of its principle cast of characters.

Review: Over the years, Sam Shepheard's work as Floating Points has become increasingly ambitious, moving further away from his dancefloor roots and closer to spiritual jazz, new age and neo-classical. Even so, it was still a surprise when Shepheard announced Promises, a 46-minute piece in 10 "movements" featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It's an undeniably remarkable piece all told; a constantly evolving fusion of neo-classical ambience, spiritual jazz and starry, synthesizer-laden soundscapes notable not only for Sanders' sublime sax-playing and Shepheard's memorable melodic themes, but also the intricate, detailed nature of the musical arrangements. It's a stunningly beautiful and life-affirming piece all told, and one that deserves your full attention.

Review: Kokoroko, a London-based eight-piece featuring musicians with disparate cultural roots and a love of improvised performance, have long been tipped as future stars of British music. Could We Be More, the award-winning outfit's debut album, more than delivers on the promise of their previous singles, offering up a set shaped by their communal love of Afrobeat, dub, Highlife, percussion workouts, spiritual jazz and smooth grooves. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the deep and sun-splashed shuffle of 'Ewa Inu' and the warming, sunset-ready soul-jazz of 'Dide O', to the horn-heavy celebration that is 'We Give Thanks' and the Balearic, beat-free bliss of 'Home'.

Review: Theo Parrish's masterful Sound Sculptures Vol 1 on triple LP format gets a timely repressing!! In total here there are 9 of the 27 tracks from the full double CD version but these still run the gamut of Theo's inimitable talents, from rough and tumble disco edits to saccharine soul, raw beatdown and leftfield esoterica. Be sure to check the Omar S- featuring "Synthetic Flemm" and long time Juno favourite "Flotation Device". If ever there was a selection of tracks that fully showcased the incredible breadth of production talent this man has, this is it. Not to be missed!

Review: Since making his debut midway through the last decade, saxophonist and producer Sam Gendel has released an insane number of solo and collaborative albums, variously turning his hand to ambient jazz, experimental electronica, abstract soundscapes, free-jazz and, most recently, jazz-fusion. On Superstore, officially a follow-up to 2021's Fresh Bread, Gendel does it all, turning his hand to a dizzying array of styles on a mixtape style excursion full to bursting with quick blasts of brilliance, off-kilter experiments and 21st century mutations of jazz. Yet despite this eclectism (a product of it being a collection of cuts recorded at different times, with different people), the album holds together brilliantly, with his love of hip-hop soul, skewed jazz-funk, abstract jazz and ambient providing a kind of loose sonic glue.

Review: Second time around for Sneaker Pimps' Six Underground, the lesser-celebrated follow-up to the duo's renowned 'Spin Spin Sugar' single (famous, of course, because of Armand Van Helden's influential 'Dark Garage' remix). While the revisions included here - all initially released in 1996 - did not make as big an impression, all four have stood the test of time impressively. The headline attraction is a pair of Two Lone Swordsmen rubs, which are amongst the earliest reworks Weatherall and Tenniswood laid down under the alias. The vocal and instrumental takes are low slung trip-hop tracks overlaid with heady electronic elements. Elsewhere, Nellee Hooper channels the spirit (and sound) of his work with Massive Attack, and Hull boys Fila Brazillia lay down a typically deep, dubby and slowly evolving downtempo workout.

Review: Having recently unfurled one synth-laden future jazz-funk classic (John Carroll Kirby's superb Blowout), Stones Throw delivers another fabulous album informed by the intersection between jazz, funk and synth sounds. Of course, Kiefer Shackleford's work has always been far more informed by hip-hop than Kirby's, and that remains a key point of difference on It's OK B U. While Shackleford loves showcasing his own piano and synth work (and it's those elements that frequently catch the ear), the accompanying beats - a mixture of head-nodding, Guru and Dilla style grooves, Flying Lotus style experiments, chopped-up breaks, wayward Dam Funk style affairs and slipped jazz rhythms - are equally as potent.

Review: Gilles Peterson and Bluey's Str4ta project has always been something of a nostalgic offering, with the pair exploring their mutual love of Brit-funk, jazz-funk and dancefloor grooves of the early 1980s. Naturally, they've loosely stuck to the same winning blueprint on sophomore set 'Str4tasfear', with the addition of an impressive cast-list of collaborators, a touch more production polish and a subtly wider set of inspirations only enhancing the listening experience. The results are uniformly impressive, with our picks of a very strong bunch including the slap-bass sporting, floor-friendly brilliance of 'Turn Me Around', the Maze-esque 'Night Flight' (all squelchy electronic bass, glistening jazz guitars and colourful synthesizer solos), the sweat-soaked jazz-funk disco heaviness of 'Lazy Days' (featuring Emma-Jean Thackray) and the super-sweet 'When You Call Me'.

Review: Very little is known about the collective of musicians behind the SAULT project, but their music in many ways speaks for itself. Earlier in the year they delivered Untitled (Black Is), a heartfelt, angry and righteous set of soul, funk, drill and spoken word tracks that provided a brilliant commentary on what it means to be black in 2020. It's a contender for album of the year, for sure, and the good news is that this speedy follow-up is every bit as essential. It's undoubtedly more celebratory than its predecessor, but every bit as musically detailed, combining cutting-edge electronics and all manner of infectious rhythms with enlightening vocals and all manner of live jazz, soul, punk-funk and jazz-funk instrumentation (as well as some seriously evocative orchestration).

Review: SAULT's body of work is almost untouchable. The mysterious collective has turned out plenty of it in the last couple of years with no fewer than four fantastic albums. This one is a complete left turn, though, which ditches the edgy alt-rock, sou land jazz for an altogether more subbed and symphonic sound. It is a soaring astral soundtrack with plenty of wide open spaces, grand arrangements and plenty of uplifting and celebratory sounds drawn from hugely spiritual choral music and contemporary classical.

Review: classic 2010 Theo Parrish album Sketches back in stock on CD.

Review: Soil & Pimp Sessions is a Japanese jazz band with an explosive sound. Made up of five musicians Shacho, Tabu Zombie, Josei on piano, Akita Goldman on bass and Midorin on drums, they are primarily an expressive live outfit who serve up rough and ready sounds that fire your every single synapse. They have been playing for 20 years now but their breakout album Pimp Master came in 2006 and saw them go on to play at Glastonbury the year after. This latest record is another exceptional one that goes from intense and complex highs to beautiful tender and vulnerable moments of calm.

Review: Masterminded by Danish stwart Alex Puddu and the Ivisible Session's Luciano Cantone, The Afro Soul Prophecy is a collaborative project featuring contributions from seriously good jazz, soul and Afro-funk musicians from around the World. Of course, sometimes such all-star affairs fail to live up to the hype, but Heat In The City certainly does. Offering a mixture of Roy Ayers' style jazz-funk, Afro-beat, Latin grooves, disco and Blaxpolitation funk instrumentals, Puddu and Cantone have managed to get the most from their contributors while balancing free expression with a detailed, intricate musical script packed to the rafters with superb musical details. For that reason alone, we'd argue that the album is well worth picking up.

Review: Having previously decided to ditch the Chet Faker moniker for a couple of subsequently low-key albums, including last year's digital-only ambient excursion, Musical Silence, Nick Murphy has finally decided to resurrect it. In the process, the Australian artist has gone back to basics, with Hotel Surrender sounding far more like his much-loved 2014 debut, Built on Glass - a massive hit in his home country - then anything else he's recorded since. It was a smart move, because Murphy does synth-heavy, electronica-tinged pop far better than most. As a result, the album is full of confirmed earworms, from the blue-eyed soul of 'Oh Me, Oh My' and the string-drenched swell of 'Whatever Tomorrow', to the flash-friend funk-pop of 'Feel Good' and the Rhodes-clad R&B-soul of 'In Too Deep'.

Review: Kyoto Jazz Sextet are an acoustic jazz 'unit' established in 2015 fronted by Shuya Okino. After their first two albums 'Mission' and 'Unity' this new third album channels only the best of what Tokyo's jazz scene has to offer, illuminating both past and present musical narratives in Japan by enlisting both new artists and legends (Takeo Moryiama appears on drums) alike.

Review: Much has changed for violinist, composer and singer-songwriter Bev Lee Harling since the release of her acclaimed debut album, Barefoot In Your Kitchen, nine years ago. It's these changes - parenthood, family life, the difficulty of retaining artistic creativity and vision when it plays second fiddle to other life commitments - that inspired Little Anchor, a sophomore album recorded at different times and places over the last decade. First and foremost, the song is full of superb songs with plenty to say, with Harling's distinctive vocal delivery being joined by imaginative musical arrangements (her violin is naturally present throughout) and production that variously touches on soul, future synth-pop, jazz and dreamy electronica.

Review: As much as we all love vinyl, it's refreshing to see an artist who still wants to put out their music on CD, which is what we get here from Romare. His latest album Fantasy finds the widely admired artist take something of a new approach to his work. The man born Archie Fairhurst gets nice and abstract with his samples as he also layers in his own vocals and instrumentation. He has said the album was inspired by log walks and watching films doing lockdowns, and it shows. Hints of 70s fantasy cinema also features and his trademark off-kilter electronic rhythms and kinetic grooves also play a big part in making this one another winner.

Review: If you thought Moor Mother's 2021 album Black Encyclopaedia of the Air was good - and it was a genuine triumph - wait until you hear this follow-up. In summary, Jazz Codes takes her impossible-to-pigeonhole personal style - a mixture of smoky trip-hop beats, heady ambient sounds, jazz instrumentation, thickset aural textures, crackly samples, soul vocals, spoken word monologues and trippy effects aplenty - and takes it to the next level. While the album features a dizzying array of guest vocalists and musicians (a complete list of which would run to several pages of A4), it never sounds like anything other than a Moor Mother album. It's her widescreen Afro-futurist vision, executed to perfection. Don't sleep!

Review: In truth, not all DJs are genuine "tastemakers", but Lefto most certainly is. Like the similarly minded - if far older and more experienced - Gilles Peterson, Lefto gets as much pleasure from introducing people to new and obscure music, as he does from rocking clubs. It's for that reason The Beauty Is Inside, a terrific, lightly blended mix of eclectic, far-sighted sounds hand-picked by the Belgian, is such essential listening. It naturally contains some slept-on tackle from the past - see the cuts by Ethiopian singer Alemayeu Eshete and South African artist Patience Africa - but even more killer contemporary fare, with highlights including the contributions of Qur'an Shaheed, Elisa Bee, fellow Belgians abrahamblue and contemporary jazz hero Makaya McCraven.

Review: Oscar Jerome received plenty of plaudits for his 2020 debut album 'Breathe Deep', a pleasingly accessible and subtly pop-tinged exploration of London's contemporary 'neo-jazz' sound and the influences he shares with many of his peers (in particular Afrobeat). 'The Spoon', his latest full-length, begins with a sliver of hazy ambient jazz and ends with a chunk of sun-soaked, laidback, Afro-influenced nu-jazz. In between, you'll find a wealth of largely relaxed, atmospheric and warming workouts that variously join the dots between modern jazz, R&B, soul, low-slung jazz-funk, hip-hop and the kind of detailed, effortlessly gorgeous soundscapes that defy easy categorization.

Review: Whether operating under his own name or the equally familiar Henry Wu alias, Kamaal Williams' next-level musical fusions are always rooted in soul and jazz. Both inspirations come to the fore on his superb contribution to the long running "DJ-Kicks" series, a smooth, atmospheric and ear-catching set that crams 29 scintillating cuts in 80 action-packed minutes. Sprinting between 21st century R&B, jazz-funk, deep house, dancefloor jazz, broken beat, kwaito, dub, drum and bass and off-kilter, impossible to pigeonhole cuts, the musician, producer and DJ manages to both educate and entertain in equal measure. Along the way you'll find plenty of exclusives, including a number of his own previously unreleased productions.

Review: Skinny Pelembe (real name Douglas Beardmore) has always been a hard artist to pin down: a South Africa-born, Doncaster-raised singer, rapper, guitarist and producer whose music seems to exist in its own sonic space. That much was clear from his 2019 debut album on Brownswood, Dreaming is Dead Now, and is even more obvious on this hotly awaited follow-up for Partisan. Hardly The Same Snake is a riveting and highly entertaining listen, with Beardmore alternately singing and (more occasionally) rapping over gorgeous, immaculately executed backing tracks that variously mix and match elements of classic 60s pop, hip-hop, broken beat, traditional South African musical styles, future R&B, synth-pop, gospel and psychedelic dream pop.

Review: 20 years after delivering her debut album, GRAMMY award-winning singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Me'Sgell NgegeOcello returns with her first album since 2018. Meant as a kind of re-set on her career and featuring nods to a wide array of musical influences, The Omnichord Real Book is a genuinely life-affirming affair with few, if any flaws. NgegeOcello makes use of a massive list of guest musicians and vocalists (Brandee Younger, Joan as Police Woman, Jeff Parker and Ambrose Akinmusire included) on tracks that variously mix, match and fuse everything from deep and spiritual jazz, soul, hip-hop and P-funk to highlife, gospel, jazz-dance and much more besides. The sound of the summer!.

Review: Two years on from the release of their fantastic debut album, Wolo So, Balimaya Project returns with more inspired fusions of polyrhythms, percussion, heady horns, "virtuosic kora styles", contemporary jazz and traditional Mande music. It's a uniquely sweet, deep and gently sun-soaked sound - all emotive vocals, tapped out tribal rhythms, frazzled solos, dreamy acoustic guitars, glistening highlife-influenced electric guitars and sultry, soulful intent. The London-based collective has long been hard-to-pigeonhole, and it's this impeccably realised but sonically adventurous approach - along with the quality of their musicianship - that's been the key to their success. When The Dust Settles will only enhance their rising reputation - it really is that good!

Review: While Jim Jupp's work as the Belbury Poly has always touched on pagan imagery, clandestine atmospherics and vintage electronics - with a dash of pastoral instrumentation thrown in from time to time - it's fair to say that he's never released an album quite like The Path, his seventh full-length excursion. Recorded with the help of a band of musicians - bass, guitar, flute, clarinet and piano all feature alongside his familiar analogue and modular synth sounds - and a narrator (poet and spoken word artist Justin Hopper), the album manages to be atmospheric and alluring whilst also being loose and groovy - all re-imagined folk-rock, eyes-closed psychedelia, breezy jazz and library music chic. It will surprise some fans, for sure, but it's a genuinely fantastic album and a huge step forward from a producer who's not content to just plough the same musical furrow.

Review: Second time around for the late, great Rai Harakami's second album, Opa*q, gets the reissue treatment. It's long been tricky to source outside of Japan and for whatever reason has not been issued in any form since it first surfaced in 2009. It's an attractive and at times off-kilter blend, with Harakimi mixing and matching ambient textures and enveloping electronic soundscapes with jazzy keyboard solos, quirky grooves, madcap post-techno acid lines, IDM and break-core style beats, and the kind of squelchy and tactile synth motifs more often associated with boogie albums made in the 1980s. It feels pleasingly lo-fi, too, as if a writer of 1980s and early 90s video-game soundtracks had made an electronica album. This edition also includes fine remixes by Ian O'Brien and Max 404, plus two hard-to-find bonus cuts.

Review: There's a definite sense of "time and place" throughout John Carrol Kirby's latest album, Blowout. He recorded it all during a recent trip to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, "between 5am wake-up calls from orpopendola birds and psychedelic sunsets", drawing inspiration from the people, music and nature that surrounded him. It's certainly a joyful and colourful affair - despite his insistence that it's about "enjoying yourself even though life is tough, before the candle blows out" - with Kirby mixing sparkling, often kaleidoscopic 1980s electrofunk synth sounds with warming grooves, pastoral woodwind instrumentation, and musical motifs that draw on his love of jazz-funk and fusion. It's basically a sensationally summery affair whose mostly subtly nods to Costa Rican musical culture only enhance the album.

Review: The traditonal way to start a review of any Micko Westmoreland release - and with as is to point out that he's best known for playing Jack Fairey in the mock glam documentary Velvet Goldmine, but with a second strong album in his new, flanked -by-legends incarnation and some highly memorable video promos featuring a succession of alternativ ecomedy greats, that could well be changing. Expect spiky English podst-punk songwriting a la XTC or even Pulp, with recent singles 'Autosexual' and 'What's In A Name' (which includes guest vocals from Kevin Eldon numbering among the highligths.

Review: Outside of jazz-fusion circles, violinist and composer Jean-Luc Ponty is best known for two things: embracing synthesizers and electronic instruments (including electric violin) earlier than his peers, and playing a small but significant role in inspiring some of Detroit techno's earliest innovators. This double disc set rounds up three of the albums that proved most inspirational to electronic musicians. Disc one sports 1987's warm, colourful and mesmerising The Gift of Time - where, fittingly, Ponty's ability to create surprising and intense off-kilter dancefloor workouts was first noticed by adventurous DJs - and 1989's Storytelling, which kicks off with his most famous work: the awe-inspiring 'In The Fast Lane'. Over on disc two, we get 1991's Tchokola, an inspired mix of fusion, Afrobeat and Zouk flavours that has long been a favourite amongst Balearic silverbacks.

Review: Will Holland is Quantic and with this project he has explored myriad different musical worlds, has traversed many different areas, most notably immersing himself in many aspects of Latin American music culture, often through collaboration. He's switched it up for this new record after first starting out with some experiments that soon turned into a love letter to disco which has long been a powerful emotional tool. He brings his own sense of percussive energy to the genre and has again worked with an array of talented mates including Connie Constance and Rationale plus vocalist Andreya Triana.

Review: Given the quality of Sons of Kemet's previous albums, hopes are naturally sky-high for the Shabaka Hutchings'-helmed quartet's first full-length excursion since 2018's Mercury Music Prize-nominated Your Queen is a Reptile. Happily, we can confirm that Black to the Future delivers - and then some. The band's most politically charged release to date, it's as energetic, intense, righteous and angry as you'd expect, offering a take on jazz that's expressive, percussively heavy and full of primal, guttural saxophone squeals courtesy of Hutchings. Throw in superb contributions from some fittingly impressive guest stars - grime MC Double E, Moor Mother and jazz poet Angel Bat Dawid all feature - and it all adds up to the most impressive Sons of Kemet album yet - and that's saying something.

Review: Black Sands, the eagerly anticipated fourth album from Simon Green AKA Bonobo, is no revolutionary change from his signature sound but does come with perhaps even more subtlety and complexity than his previous offerings. Having constantly instilled a degree of integrity and value back into chill out music following the influx of Cafe Del Mar and Coffeeshop compilations, Green once again displays a musicianship that sets him apart as a true artist and producer amongst a sea of downtempo and chillout DJs.
His undeniably clear understanding of composition and arrangement of live instruments has enabled Green to make an album that reaches out through diverse styles, taking influence and inspiration from wherever possible. On Black Sands, Green delves into electronic music and bass more than he did across Animal Magic, Dial "M" For Monkey or Days To Come but does so with enough subtlety and finesse to refrain from causing a radical shift in his product. Tracks like "Kiara," "We Could Forever" and "All In Forms" all utilise beats and bass in a more contemporary outlook than we are used to with Bonobo. Of course the instrumental feel is still there for all to see. Title track "Black Sands" takes this position for almost seven minutes of a horn infused waltz whereas "Kong" assumes the traditional soul-jazz Bonobo take and "Animals" lets delicate drum patterns guide us through pleasing tempo shifts.
The instrumental vibe is highlighted further in the album's approach to vocals. Unlike his last album, Days To Come which was littered with vocals, Black Sands houses only three tracks that contain vocals. The breathy vocals of Andreya Triana complete tracks like "Stay the Same" and "The Keeper" turning them in more traditional songs. Black Sands is another loving crafted offering that uses orchestral arrangements but this time merged with more of a dance aesthetic. As he continues to make chillout more credible in his experimental way, it's no wonder that Bonobo is one of the biggest artists to come from the excellent Ninja Tune.