Back catalogue: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Nothing by Louis Cole, a collaboration with the Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, blends classical orchestration with dance music, pop, and jazz, showcasing Cole's unique and ultra-flexible production style. The album features 17 tracks, 15 of which are brand new, avoiding orchestral renditions of his hits and instead presenting fresh compositions. The lead single, 'Things Will Fall Apart,' highlights Cole's feather-light vocals over an exciting orchestration of funk percussion, strings, horns and barbershop backup vocals. Recorded during live performances, Nothing captures the energy and emotion of Cole's multi-date sold-out European tour with the Metropole Orkest. The project emphasises Cole's desire to create music with deep emotional impact while remaining straightforward and accessible. Cole meticulously mixed the album himself, ensuring his pure vision was realised.

Review: Melbourne-based band Hiatus Kaiyote share their latest album Love Heart Cheat Code via Brainfeeder. Hot on the heels of run-up singles 'Make Friends', the album continues Kaiyote's virtuosic phatjazz meanderings, and thematically revolves around ideas of true friendship and breezy love relationships, with the aforementioned lead single following lead singer Nai Palm hearing the following statement: "you don't make friends, you recognise them". Turning the feeling of love into a resounding simile - the giddy feeling of entering a cheat code into the game of life - the album goes on to deploy its clear-eyed soul and jazz for a fierce statement into such hot topics as gender neutrality and commodification.

Review: Hiatus Kaiyote are amazing - plain and simple. The Melbourne-based group have risen to well-deserved stardom with their expertly crafted, multi-layered slow jams backing the sensational vocal stylings of lead singer Nai Palm. Since their 2013 debut 'Tawk Tomahawk', the group has been sampled by The Carters, Drake and Anderson .Paak, undoubtedly for their smooth genre-bending and soulful sound reminiscent of Erykah Badu - who has since become a big fan. The two singles, 'Make Friends' and 'Everything's Beautiful' are rich in depth and have some of Palm's best vocal performances to date - they belt out some crazy riffs on the latter track, a cut oozing in groove. Pressed on indie exclusive marbled disc, so support independent vinyl companies and get a beautiful pressing in return.

Review: Austin Peralta's 2011 album Endless Planets has never before been available on vinyl and now gets pressed up as a special Deluxe Edition by Brainfeeder. Peralta really crafted something special here when the label made its first moves into the world of jazz. He is a prodigious piano-playing talent who uses that as a vehicle for his inquisitive futurism while never forgetting the heritage of original jazz. In this special version, four previously unreleased tracks are unveiled. Among them is a live rendition of 'DMT Song' from FlyLo's 2012 album 'Until the Quiet Comes,' which Austin collaborated on. Wonderful stuff.

Review: Kit Sebastian's upcoming album, New Internationale, set for release via Brainfeeder, marks a major step forward for the duo of Kit Martin and Merve Erdem. The lead single, 'Metropolis', blends Azerbaijani musical influences with Western funk grooves, using vintage synths and intricate choral textures. The track's samba-driven finale, complete with dual drum kits and processed horns and strings, creates a layered, cinematic soundscape. Lyrically, "Metropolis" explores the immigrant experience, delving into themes of identity, belonging, and artistic compromise in an unfamiliar world. Written while on tour, New Internationale features a rich tapestry of global instrumentsifrom Turkish clarinet to zither and harpsichordiwoven into a seamless mix of Anatolian psych, French pop, and Tropicalia. The album reflects Merve's personal journey navigating her Turkish heritage and Kit's eclectic musical influences, culminating in their most orchestrated work yet. It's a vivid exploration of multicultural identity, using lush, borderless soundscapes that bridge genres and histories, while pushing the boundaries of modern psychedelia and global fusion.

Review: Flying Lotus collaborator Thundercat returns to Brainfeeder with his first full album since 2013's superb Apocalypse. Presented over four coloured pieces of 10" vinyl, Drunk is a thrill-a-minute, mix-tape style trip through the multi-instrumentalist and beat-maker's various inspirations (think skewed hip-hop, jazz, soul, funk, left-of-centre electronica, and so on), all of which have been fused and mutated to fit his unique musical perspective. His high standing within the leffield hip-hop community has allowed Thundercat to snag some impressive guest stars, too, including Kendrick Lamarr, blue-eyed soul legend Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Pharell and jazz man Kamasi Washington. Old pal Fly-Lo also lends a hand.

Review: Thundercat's last album, 2017's "Drunk", is undeniably one of the greatest full-lengths of the past few years - a dizzyingly varied and mind-altering affair that mixed and matched styles to create thrilling new fusions of past and present sounds. He's at it again on this delayed follow-up "It Is What It Is", which was co-produced by Flying Lotus and includes an impressive cast-list of guests and collaborators (think Kamasi Washington, Ty Dolla Sign, Steve Arrington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Lil B and Louis Cole for starters). Musically it's impossible to pigeonhole - think rubbery 80s funk meets spiritual jazz meets reggae meets hip-hop meets experimental beats meets... you get the idea - and that makes for inspiring listening. Whether it's quite as good as "Drunk" is debatable, but it's certainly superb.

Review: Virtuoso bassist & singer Thundercat releases a very special deluxe edition of his album Apocalypse, ten years on from its original release in 2013. Packed with gems including the certified classics 'Heartbreaks + Setbacks', 'Lotus and the Jondy', 'Tron Song' and the all-out cosmic funk bullet 'Oh Sheit, It's X', Thundercat brings a fusion of pop, soul, electronica, prog rock and funk into an unexplored dimension, with his signature basslines gliding sky high to meet Executive Producer Flying Lotus' astral touch. The new edition also contains two previously unreleased tracks, 'Before I loved myself 'I' pooped my ankles (true)' recorded with Austin Peralta and Taylor Graves, and 'Paris' (with Mono/Poly). The deluxe LP also features special rainbow holographic artwork housed inside a transparent PVC outer slipcase complete with 'x-ray' holographic skull print.