Ten Lovers Music Vinilo y CD

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: The Ten Lovers Music crew has got another seamless fusion of lunge, jazz, downtempo and deep house on its hands here courtesy of this fresh new 12" from Cumulative Collective and Re:Fill. It's Cumulative Collective who go first with 'Suede Bear', a playful late-night cut with dancing chords and jazzy keys over soul-drenched deep house beats with a funky bass riff running right through the middle. On the flip, Re:Fill's 'Live Vibe' is a more broken beat workout with spinning hi-hats and tumbling snares all held together by a bright lead synth that brings the funk.

Review: The cultured folks at Ten Lovers Music have put together a best of collection on this new various artists 12" and what a joy it is too. Cumulative Collective pome with the joyous and life-affirming jazz sounds of shuffling house delight 'AskaFara'. Takahiro Fuchigami's 'Strange Acquaintance' floats through the cosmos on jittery melodic details with crisp percussion and warming Rhodes chords. Flip it over and you get Melchior Sultana bringing the sunshine that he is so well known for to 'The Playground', the sumptuous synth-led, brass embellished Latin funk of Fabio Santanna's 'Melo Da Cuica' and The Robinson closing things down with the more zippy and broken beat energy of 'Song 1', featuring some truly virtuosic piano soloing.

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.