New releases last two weeks: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz

Review: DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson pivot decisively toward movement - physical, emotional, and spiritual - on their fourth record. The French duo channel their lyrical and tonal warmth into a ten-track celebration of rhythm in all its forms, gliding nimbly over funk, ndombolo, electro, hip-hop, zouk, and more: an underfoot patchwork and bipedal soul food for thought. Beneath breezy deliveries and playful turns of phrase lie reflections on transidentity, consent, and social precarity, as such subjects are approached with wit, compassion, and an instinctive sense of space. Collaborators like Anthony Hilaire, Sarah Solo, Patrick Bebey, and Gregoire Mahe deepen the texture, threading Creole poetry, pygmy flute, and electro-soukous flair, and electronic charge: the result brims with an 80s tinge, inciting a a joyful, conscious invitation to dance, think, and feel all at once.