Back catalogue: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Ten Lovers always manage to find a perfect sweet spot between jazz and house on the music it serves up. This new various artists' effort proves the point well: Marcello Cassanelli lunches the trip with groovy and nodding bass synths and airy vocal cries on 'Fantasia.' Zarenzeit then sinks into a bubbly groove with killer drums and sun-worshiping synths before Stefano De Santis drops some excellent broken beast on his squelchy synth workout 'Song For George D.' Future Jazz Ensemble takeoff into the cosmos and Caruso gets romantic on 'Vestimenta'.

Review: Eelco Topper's latest release as FELBM is a conceptual affair, with the Dutch producer delivering a 38-minute piece (here split into two parts for vinyl, each of which finishes with a locked groove to give the impression of the track creating an infinite musical loop) that mixes and matches tape loops, cyclical samples, repeating melodic motifs and pastoral-sounding snatches of flute, bansuri, bass trumpet, saxophone and pedal steel. While the concept, inspired by the artist's thoughts about 'the cyclical nature of the world around him" is important, of more significance is the utter brilliance of the piece itself - a genuinely gorgeous, warming, atmospheric and ambient-leaning concoction tailor-made for imagined afternoons in the countryside and woodland walks at dawn.

Review: Flashbaxx's 'Take Care My Friend', released in 2020, is notable for its blend of jazz-funk instrumentation, audible warmth, and memorable songwriting - centring on the subject of a broken-down relationship refracted through the lens of hybrid nu jazz and slow-motion soul. Its terse seven tracks now hear a remix EP on the same issuing label, Nunorthern Soul, charting electronic remixes by Tambores En Benirras, Moods, and of course, everyone's favourite jazzdance status symbol, Atjazz. The remixes are deeply layered and come tempered with the feel of live playing despite their electronic interpretation; indeed, this is a quality selection and producers' delight.

Review: As you will well know if you are reading this, prog house is back and it has been for ages. As always with any revival, there is good stuff and weak stuff. This EP is very much the corner from Forces of Nature, with authentic 90s soundscapes mixing up lush ambient synth designs, dreamy Italo drums and real musical depth. 'Jupiter' is super smooth and seductive as it cruises at high altitude, then 'Tripping' is a downbeat workout and 'The Bomb' takes you to the heavens on gorgeous melodies while the bass plunges low. 'In Your Mind' is perfectly comedown music to close the EP in style.

Review: Some Trans-Atlantic collaborative action here, as New York deep house and techno don Fred P joins forces with London-based French producer Smbd (formerly known as Simbad) for the very first time. Given both producers' undoubted abilities and musical approaches, you'll be unsurprised to discover that 'When The Mantras Return' blends deep, jazzy and intergalactic sounds with beats that variously reference jacking house, broken beat and intergalactic techno. Highlights include the jazzy, deep space house of 'Be Your Self', the acid-fired heaviness of 'Conscious Feedback (Part 1 & 2)', the dubby, spaced-out house excellence of 'Rawness', and the ambient techno meets broken beat wonder that is 'Innerspace'.

Review: Future Jazz Ensemble is a project from Italian producer Nicola Penna, aka Nasty Boy, who has also recorded for Sahko Records and ANMA. Aside from some self-released records, this is the first official offering from the project which offers a noirish sound nodding to nu-jazz in in its subtle assimilation of electronic processes into a jazz context. Skittering drum machine patterns collide with snatches of instrumentation, with noirish Rhodes chords as a common thread binding everything together into a moody, musically dexterous whole. If you cherish fresh approaches which hold true to the roots of jazz culture, you're sure to love this record.

Review: Eglo come through with Yellow Memories, the long awaited debut album from Queen bee Fatima! First popping up on the label run by Alex Nut and Floating Points with a vocal contribution to Kleer by FunkinEven, Fatima's been an undeniably soulful presence on Eglo ever since and they've been teasing fans about the idea of a long player from the singer for what seems lie an aeon! Twelve tracks deep, Yellow Memories features button pushing credits from Eglo mainstays Floating Points and fLako along with Sound Signature boss man Theo Parrish, Sa Ra Creative Partners producer Computer Jay, Stones Throw artist (and Madlib's younger brother) Oh No and the wonderfully named Scoop DeVille. Fatima fans will recognise a few of the tracks on the album, with "Techno" and "Circle" issued last summer whilst the Family 12? released earlier this year featured the fLako produced cuts "La Neta" and "Family". Sink in and soak it up!

Review: There's a saying. "If you bite it and you die, it's poison. If it bites you and you die, it's venom." Fusion Affair's latest album, Venom, is a modern homage to 1970 jazz-funk and fusion, looking back on the golden era of the sound. And by jove, it is venomous. But the kind of death this special venom introduces isn't just plain old death - it's ego death. That's the effect that mega-clean soulful, Moogy and synthy ensemble soul such as this has the power to induce. Seeping into our bloodstream comes the virtuosic drumming of Tao Ehrlich, the slick and understated basswork of Sofian El Mabrouk, and lead multi-instrumental brain Mathieu Guillot. This is a sonic snake you'll want to be bitten by.