Juno Recommends Brokenbeat / Nu Jazz July 2018

Review: Astonishingly, it's been 21 years since half Japanese New Zealander Mark De Clive-Lowe dropped his first release. Mark remains a hugely talented musician, producer and beat-maker capable of creating thrillingly soulful and off-kilter cuts. We're particularly enjoying the sumptuous summer sunshine of De Clive-Lowe's rich and groovy revision of Nils Wulker and Jill Scott's impeccable "Worth The Wait", the bass-heavy, organ-sporting swing of his take on King's "Supernatural", and the synth-heavy, broken beat-goes-deep house quality of the jazz-funk-influenced Amanda Melome rework. Best of all, though, is the Kiwi don's weighty, peak-time revision of Cherie Mathieson's "Games We Play".

Review: Leeds' Abstract Orchestra came through in 2017 with their debut album, Dilla, and it was clear form the start that the ATA imprint knew what they were doing. Led by Rob Mitchell (the saxophonist of The Haggis Horns), the hip-hop ensemble are poised to strike a chord among the house heads and the jazz-dance fanatics, tapping into the core of sample-based music and percussive rhythm. This LP, as the name implies, is a live, orchestral rendition of J Dilla's best and most coveted work; the tracks chosen come from a variety of the legend's recordings, such as Welcome 2 Detroit, Donuts, and the multitude of successive releases that have been released since his untimely passing, back in 2006. For an artist who dedicated so much of his life and passion to live music and organic percussion, this is the perfect ode and a touching way to get closer to the ideas that made these tunes so special in the first place. A collector's delight.

Review: UK funk and jazz band, Smoove + Turrell, are back on the unstoppable Jalapeno Records with their fifth studio album for the label, making them the imprint's star residents. Alongside the deluge of LPs that they've released for Jalapeno, the outfit have dropped countless singles, each one of them showcasing one strand of funk and soul. Mount Pleasant is an undeniably festive collection of tunes, primed and ready for the summer months, full of zest and life for the dancers. The main ingredient is funk and jazz, but the power behind this memorable LP is the band's pop sensibility, coming through in everything from the vocals to the arrangements, creating a selection of tunes that are instantly memorable and painfully hummable. Is this the rise of the underground coming through above the line? Only time will tell, but we think these guys are the real deal.

Review: The Shakedown is the debut album from Tenderlonious and it features a dream team of top talent he named the 22archestra, who he leads in explosive fashion throughout. Bear witness to the full breadth of 'Tender's technical and compositional skills, spanning masterful executions in jazz, hip-hop, afrobeat, latin and freeform jazz. The 22archestra was conceived after he was invited to record at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. The whole crew was rounded up and the album was recorded during a single eight hour session - a testament to their musicianship and ability to nail a take, which has been equally honed on stage during their intense live performances.

Review: If you've not yet copped the debut album from Cardiff twosome Darkhouse Family, The Offering, we'd suggest tracking down a copy - it was one of last year's most overlooked beats albums, joyously joining the dots between hip-hop, jazz and neo-soul. Here First Word offers up "An Extra Offering" featuring a quintet of new remixes of album tracks. The quality threshold naturally remains high throughout, with Kaidi Tatham's synth bass-propelled, head-nodding rework of "The Accession" providing an early high watermark. Naturally, DJ Spinna's two reworks are both superb. His "Galactic Soul" version of "Another World" is a string-laden, house tempo synth-soul treat, while the "Galactic Funk" remix of "Just So You Know" brilliantly wraps spacey synth bass and sweet soul vocals around a slipped, off-kilter hip-hop rhythm.

Review: Under the K15 alias, Kieran Ifill has been responsible for some wonderful deep, expansive and soulful music on Eglo, Wild Oats, Lo Recordings and WotNot Music. Here he returns to the latter for the first time in four years. He hits his stride straight away with "Be Glad You Create Anything", a sparkling, mid-tempo shuffler that wraps darting, Kaidi Tatham style jazz-funk synth motifs around loose and languid beats and a suitably warm and attractive bassline. Ifill's love of fluid piano lines, eyes-closed electronics and dreamy chords once again comes to the fore on 120 BPM deep bumper "Communion", before the producer treats us to the deliciously loved-up, poignant and sumptuous head-nodding bliss that is fine closer "You're Alive (There's Still Time)". In a word: superb.

Review: This release marks something of a departure for Athens of the North, a label predominantly known for reissuing ludicrously rare funk and soul sevens. For starters, it's a brand new album, written, performed and produced by jazzman Greg Foat and Warren Hampshire, who's best known for being a member of The Bees. Then there's what it sounds like. While there are nods to the organic, immaculately produced soul of Rotary Connection, for the most part Galaxies Like Grains of Sand is a luscious fusion of hazy, Cinematic Orchestra style jazz, folksy downtempo compositions, and the blissful, head-in-the-clouds bliss of new age influenced ambient. Surprising or not, it's an utterly beguiling album

Review: The Allergies' debut album introduced the world to the way they effortlessly fuse funk, soul, disco, hip-hop and breaks into dancefloor-ready nuggets of ear candy. Taking classic sounds and reshaping them for the modern age is the signature that won them plaudits across the globe. Not ones to rest on their laurels, it hasn't taken long for them to deliver more of the goods on their second full-length album. As well as taking the successful formula of the first record and expanding on their sound, the band enlisted two giants of underground hip-hop to bless mics on the album as well. After a hugely successful collaboration on their debut LP, once again the dynamic lyricism and production skills of the inimitable Andy Cooper (Ugly Duckling) are present and correct in this new collection.

Review: For a brief period in the early 1980s, Colored Music - the duo of Atsuo Fujimoto and Ichiko Hashimoto - burned brightly. They released one critically acclaimed album on Japanese avant-pop label Better Days before vanishing into obscurity. Individual Beauty draws together previously unheard of alternate versions of the duo's eponymous 1981 EP, unreleased tracks and a handful of archival solo productions. It's an eclectic and hugely enjoyable affair, with the Japanese duo flitting between experimental ambient soundscapes, heavy no-wave proto-techno ("Heartbeat (Unreleased Version)"), mutant funk ("We Are Only Dancing"), head-in-the-clouds hypnotism ("Ambient Discotheque") and more raucous, post-punk disco insanity (the decidedly crunchy "De To Ri Mi").

Review: The latest full-length missive from Arno Lemonade's fast-rising label may be confusingly presented, but there's much to enjoy. The A-side is officially a three-track EP from label regular Lockwood, who smothers a variety of leisurely jazz rhythm tracks in Kamaal Williams style keys and his own impeccable, atmospheric deep house electronics. On the flipside you'll find an expansive, six-track label sampler that brilliantly flits between beat-less spoken word loveliness (Numen), blazed instrumental hip-hop soundscapes (Fungku, Yarno and Vicking), deep and jazzy electronica (Title) and 2000 Black style broken jazz-funk (Pippin). Most of the latter are arguably a little too short at between two and three minutes apiece, but they're all admirably horizontal and atmospherically produced.