First Word Vinilo y CD

Review: Earlier this month, First Word Records dropped an epic, digital-only compilation in which members of the label's large family of artists either collaborated with or remixed each other. This 12" boasts four of the collection's undoubted highlights. The EP begins with a simply stunning Kaidi Tatham remix of Allysha Joy's soul-jazz treat 'Better' - think deep broken beat meets liquid jazz-funk and sultry neo-soul - and ends with a fiercely sub-heavy and surprisingly spaced out K15 broken beat rework of Teotima's 'But I Can't'. Sandwiched in between you'll find a jazz-funk-goes-bruk re-wire of Takuya Kuroda's 'Fade' by KEARL (that's K15 and Darkhouse Family's Earl Jeffers) and a wonderful fusion of squelchy synth-jazz and broken beat courtesy of Quiet Dawn and Sarah Williams White.

Review: After offering up EPs titled "Hard Times" and "Changing Times" in 2017, Kaidi Tatham returns to First Word to complete the trilogy with "Serious Times". Of course, the music contained within the EP's tightly packed grooves is as joyous, rich as intricate as ever. Check, for example, "Don't Cry Now", a samba-soaked, sun-kissed affair that wraps harmonic freestyle vocals, twinkling electric piano lines and darting jazz-funk bass around a seriously shuffling groove. Tatham's much-discussed jazz-funk influences are once again given an airing on "Sugar", while his fine piano work takes pride of place on instrumental hip-hop head-nodder "Zallom". Best of all, though, is opener "Cost of Living", which emphatically weaves together all of these strands and more besides.