Back catalogue: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Nicola Conte is one of the central figures in the Schema story, and his nu jazz and broken beat partnership with Gianluca Petrella has yielded some golden music in recent years. Nigeria originally came out in 2018, and then last year popped up on the duo's People Need People LP, but now it's getting a proper remix treatment which sees Tall Black Guy twisting the track out as a heady disco house roller for sundown moments when you need a little jazzy flair in the proceedings. That version comes in vocal and instrumental versions, and then the mighty Andres steps up for one of his simmering groove escapades as he delivers an extended remix of 'African Spirits'.

Review: African Spirits is the coming together of musician and producer Nicola Conte with his friend and colleague Gianluca Petrella, who is an ECM and Blue Note associate and internationally renowned talent who emerged from the Italian jazz scene. Their recent album found them exploring a wide range of music in our globalised world with nods to Detroit, disco, house, and jazz. Now Berlin-based New York don Fred P offers up two of his reinterpretations. They are of course long, deep, spiritual and moving in both physical and emotional ways.

Review: Last year, Mother Tongue Records released Madre Lingua, an album of all-star collaborations between broken beat and deep house musicians and producers helmed by Verona-based Brit Patrick Gibin. This 12" updates two of the tracks from the set, with Gibin once again to the fore. On side A, he joins forces with long-time friend and studio buddy Kaidi Tatham to remix EDB and Gary Superfly's 'Pressure'. Their tack is bouncy and synth-heavy, with spacey, out-there lead lines and intergalactic-sounding pads rising above a Maurice Fulton-as-Syclops style bassline and loose-limbed house drums. On the flip, Marc De Clive-Lowe remixes his own collaboration with Gibin and Tommasso Capelleto, 'Apollo', brilliantly joining the dots between spacey jazz-funk and ambient on a superb, beat-free 'Dreamscape' mix.

Review: It might be summer 2023 as we write this but it's Autumn 2021 for the Free Robots. This 7" is part of the Time Flies labels removed series where today's producers rework yesterday's classics from the world of Italian golden age soundtracks and library music. This focusses on music from a 1978 album Futuribile by Gianni Safred, a talented pianist and electronic producer. It is a woozy mix of jazz drums and hip hop rhythms with spaced out synth work and experimental effects. The flipside features the original version which is more retro-future and spaced out with less dynamic rhythms.

Review: A new four-track EP reflecting ever-expanded horizons for the band, 'Bloodline' is the latest output from loose-limbed, soul-stirring funk band Gabriels. Quickly finding fans in the likes of Elton John, Celeste, Paul Weller, Benji B, and Gilles Peterson, Gabriels should soon find plenty more on a record that could soundtrack a David Lynch epic; such is its drama, its suspenseful, late-night orchestral ruminations. Capped by frontman Lusk's voice - a weapon that swoops through the octaves breathlessly - Gabriels have that rare ability to make you re-evaluate music, and what it can do, in a heartbeat. Whilst Lusk provides the wow factor with that ridiculous larynx, Gabriels are very much a close-knit trio. Producer, keyboardist (and full-time video director) Ryan Hope hails from Sunderland but calls LA home. Fellow producer-composer and violinist Ari Balouzian, a man with endless musical projects on the go at any one time, gives Gabriels' songs a real 'feel' to them. Sultry, soulful mood music certainly isn't the band's modus operandi, but this new experimental EP should paint an altogether more rounded idea of where Gabriels are at today.

Review: So the legend goes: Tokyo dance music aficionados DJs Nori, Fukuba, Alex From Tokyo, and Kenji Hasegawa came together sometime in 2003, with but one ultimate goal: to bring together, in their own words, the best music, with the best sound system, the best hospitality, by the best management staff, in the best location. The result was Gallery Connection, a venue and soundsystem situated right next to Omotesando station, in the the heart of the city's upscale cultural rampart, Harajuku. Famously held on Sunday afternoons, this dream team's party is once again started with two reissued versions of their original CD fixture and DJ set go-to, 'Smile', flaunting its stylistic versatility: a signature Balearic-scenic Shibuya-kei track that resounds in memory as the time-honoured party's de facto theme tune.

Review: Burning Sole sure will have those soles bring with this new 7" from The Getups. Here the band serve up one of their super powerful house funk takes on the hit pop single by Fitz and the Tantrums. The way was guitar twists and turns, the urgent drums hammer away and the warm, funky bass ties it all together. Flip it over for a high speed cop-chase theme from the 60's. 'The Big Noise' is just that. This one is super limited with just 100 copies each on either purple or black vinyl.

Review: Groovin' Records has returned to the seemingly bottomless well that is Glenn Underground's back catalogue and picked out two more gems to get the reissue treatment. Naturally, they're both must-have cuts. On the A-side there's a chance to get reacquainted with 'Afro Gente', an in-demand 2009 jam that sees the Chicago legend pepper an infectious, richly percussive, Afro-Latin house groove with jammed-out electric piano riffs, spacey synth doodles and some killer organ solos. It's near eleven-minutes of heavyweight, life-affirming dancefloor heat from the Ron Trent school of deep house excellence. Over on the flip you'll find 2012 rarity '7th Trumpet', a shuffling, sunset-ready slab of languid deep house brilliance smothered in evocative, Latin-tinged synthesised trumpet solos.

Review: This naive street soul gem is so rare, that - prior to its repress here by Heels & Souls - it was barely accessible anywhere save for a potential L500 re-flogging on eBay. Luckily, those with their best interests at heart do the glorious work of repressing the tracks 'Over You' and 'Shining Through' - as well as their slightly different dance mixes - to EP-length wax. You're lucky to be in the presence of some quintessential street soul here, featuring detuned vocals, crude plodding drums and digital strings that evoke shafts of evening light on city concrete. And if you're ever suffering a bad breakup, 'Over You' is the harsh remedy.

Review: Matthew Halsall's Gondwana label is seeing a busy August what with the imprint flooding our jazz charts with reissues and, of course, new releases such as this wonderful collaborative effort from The Gondwana Orchestra and Dwight Trible. Trible's voice is like silk, running up and down the delicate waves of melodies from the collective, with "Colors" and "The Creator Has A Master Plan" both capable of making the toughest of audiences feel utterly uplifted. On the flip, "Love Is Everywhere" shines bright amid a flurry of flutes and intricate drum percussions, while "You've Got To Have Freedom" rides off a much smoother, deeper sort of vibe that's got a little funk at its core. Wicked.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Following the success of her debut album Man Made this year, here's a reissue of London artist Aria Wells aka Greentea Peng's Rising EP from back in 2019 on Different. She worked with different producers on this one such as Fred Cox, Kiko, Samo and Earbuds who lent their various talents. Peng's soothing vocal delivery is accompanied perfectly by hypnotic polyrhythms on songs like 'Risin', the blunted urban blues of 'Inna City', and the broken beat neo-soul of 'Liberation' being just some highlights on this terrific EP.

Review: Mother Tongue sure knows how to serve up some beautifully escapist and Balearic sounds and that's exactly what we have here with this seductive new 12" from Tiombe Lockhart feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow. This welcome return to the label from Lockhart comes as a teaser ahead of her new album Going Forth By Day. On this evidence, it's going to be a real doozy because 'An Osirian Dream' is utterly angelic. The vocals soar to the heavens next to celestial melodies over a gentle rhythm. Also included a beatless version and a couple of T's takes which get more jazzy.

Review: Oumuamua is the new album from Golden Mean, who might have impressed you as much as they impressed us with their first EP Through Walls. This outing London's vital Jazz Re:freshed finds drummer Jamie Murray join the group made up of Tom Driessler (who has played with Yussef Kamaal), Luke Wynter and Lyle Barton. Between them they serve up a scintillating trip to the stars on soaring melodies and driving grooves that take cues from scenes like prog-rock, jazz and plenty in between. Though retro synths appear, it is a forward thinking sound full of busy solo improvisation that fits in with the greats of the genre from the 70s onwards.