New releases last eight weeks: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Last year, the Expansions label kicked off a wonderfully intriguing 10" series featuring classics from soul music's rich canon complemented by contemporary cover versions and so far it's seen Blue Note troupe Quasimode tee off against Johnny Hammond and Bembe Segue challenge Norman Connors. A third edition duly arrives and hints Expansions are really enjoying the creative challenge the concept allows them with the jazz funk classic "Zaius" from Eddie Russ joined by a cover from the celebrated UK funk veterans Incognito. Originally appearing on the 1976 LP See The Light, "Zaius" is a blinding example of why Russ is described a master of the keyboard and it's complemented well by Incognito's B Side cover which appears on vinyl for the first time. Don't sleep!

Review: Jihoon links with some talented musicians including Thomas Xu, Omar Meftah, Eric Meftah and Ian Gold on this brilliant new three-tracker on One Spoke. It kicks off with the sublime 'Good In The Bad' which is a jazzy viber with flute lines dancing their own dance above lovely contemporary broken beats. 'There Is No End' layers chords, synths and jazz drums into a richly atmospheric groove before last of all the whole of the flip side is given over to a Thomas Xu & Ian Gold remix of 'There Is No End' that is gloriously sunny jazz-fusion at its finest. These will keep you warm no matter the weather outside this winter.

Review: Melbourne, Australia based sextet The Traffic, headed up by Ivan 'Choi' Khatchoyan, serve up a special MJ feature funk 45. Presented in a special pressing in red vinyl with black splatter, we get awesome renditions of Michael Jackson tracks 'Beat It' and 'Thriller' from his iconic Thriller album from 1982. The big band energy of the players make these cover versions worthy your attention, with a killer horns section imitating the king of pop's falsetto to great effect.