Juno Recommends Brokenbeat / Nu Jazz August 2019

Review: After offering up EPs titled "Hard Times" and "Changing Times" in 2017, Kaidi Tatham returns to First Word to complete the trilogy with "Serious Times". Of course, the music contained within the EP's tightly packed grooves is as joyous, rich as intricate as ever. Check, for example, "Don't Cry Now", a samba-soaked, sun-kissed affair that wraps harmonic freestyle vocals, twinkling electric piano lines and darting jazz-funk bass around a seriously shuffling groove. Tatham's much-discussed jazz-funk influences are once again given an airing on "Sugar", while his fine piano work takes pride of place on instrumental hip-hop head-nodder "Zallom". Best of all, though, is opener "Cost of Living", which emphatically weaves together all of these strands and more besides.

Review: A warm welcome back to the Darkhouse Family, Cardiff's finest purveyors of soul-fired instrumental hip-hop and jazz-funk flavoured broken beats. The good news is that "All The Way", which features the combined talents of guests Tyler Daley and Kaidi Tatham, is every bit as good as anything on their superb 2017 album "The Offering". The A-side original version, in particular, is superb - a languid chunk of head-nodding hip-hop soul rich in double bass, drowsy jazz horns, twinkling pianos and impassioned, emotive vocals. That said, the instrumental flipside revision, which includes extended flute solos where the vocals once say, is also impeccable.

Review: London's Catching Flies returned to action last year after a five year absence with "Satisfied", an ambient and chillwave flavoured single that was every bit as alluring as his earlier work. Here he attempts to build on that success with a confident debut album that reminded us a little - in parts at least - of Jordan Rakei's earlier work. The ten tracks largely tend towards the slick, soulful and summery, with woozy lead vocals riding atop head-nodding beats, soft-touch instrumentation, jazzy guitar passages and the kind of sunset-ready sounds that will delight those of a Balearic persuasion. Highlights include the music box melodies of ambient curt "Opals", the sunny opener "Komerebi" and the sing-along stomp of "Satisfied".

Review: Chiaia Lovers is the latest label to rise from Naples' vibrant electronic music underground. For release number one, the freshly minted imprint has turned to fellow debutant Prince Ozay, a producer apparently inspired by the teachings of early 20th century philosopher and mystic Georges Gurdjieff (a man who sported one of the finest moustaches of all time). It's a rather fine debut, all told, with the mysterious producer skipping between wild jazz-funk/broken beat/space funk fusion ("Samoung"), deep and dreamy nu-jazz ("Ultima Caccia"), mystical ambience (the inspired and intoxicating "Stelle Marine") and acoustic guitar-sporting Balearic bliss ("Portinatx").

Review: Captain Over (real name Greg Surmacz) rather brilliantly describes himself as an "intergalactic skengman" who crafts "broken beats out of space debris". Here he makes his label debut on Darker Than Wax with his first fully instrumental EP (much of his previous work featured grime MCs). He opens the 12" strongly via the shuffling broken beats, alien electronics, warm chords and eight-bit melodies of "4D", before skewering the drums further on the wonderfully bass-heavy and out there "Deep Blue". Over on side B, "Mind's Eye" is an off-kilter chunk of spacey bruk positivity, "New Life Forms" boasts some sparkling synths and bleepy "space debris", and "Take It Too Far" is an on-point broken beat roller rich in Sinclair Spectrum beeps and rich, jammed-out chords.