Review: Leo Pesci - Impolite (Ramrock Red Records)

Well, it'd be 'Impolite' not to! 

Yes, Team Ramrock have done it again with an excellent album of eight tracks inspired by the West Coast wave of 'new' hip-hop/soul/jazzers like Lamar, Glasper and Thundercat (sound like a firm of very suspect firm of Attorneys at Law?)

Leo Pesci's got that jazz heritage to his insightful hip hop a la Tribe Called Quest - if Roy Hargrove was around, he'd appreciate the opener 'Nuffin' Left But Crumbs' and the single, 'Power Clash'.

Jackson Mathod's trumpet on the single/album is a revelation and on an elevating positive outlook, we move onto 'Betta Now' that's more fully into the Dwele end of soul/R&B.

'Soprano's Theme' (Pesci, hey! Any relation?) and 'Evry1's Theory' lyrically point at the depressing world we've created; and then the music brings us hope of peace and love

Whilst this has echoes of the musical past, particularly Dwele / Hargrove/ RH Factor/ MC Solaar(en anglais), there's post-Thundercat / Flying Lotus / Kamasi Washington hints with the space-bruk of 'Dario's Pummarola' - supreme synth work and definitely one you're going to hear a lot of on the radio in the future - and the rally-cry of 'NU-ST8'.

Stay tuned and order the the vinyl; is it 'Impolite'? Take in 'Leo's MSG' and reflect on.

Artist: Leo Pesci

Title: Impolite

Release date: 20th October, 2023

Label: Ramrock Red Records

Cat. No: RRRLP011

Review: Abel - Cosmic Law (Atjazz Record Company)

The buzz for the 'Cosmic Law' release has been around for a while now but even the two singles didn't prepare us for this 11 track opus.

Yes, stunned by the singles, 'Jazz In The Room' (see review HERE) and 'Can’t Let You Go', featuring Rona Ray (see review HERE), this new album on Atjazz's label threatens to topple our other favourite Album of the Year' that happen's to be on his label too, South Beach Recycling's 'Obsessive Compulsive Disco' (see review HERE): and now with remixes! (HERE).

And expect to be still stunned as the opener is like that fast paced jazz fuelled funker that you'd wished Santana or Weather Report had produced with a big dollop of Azymuth; like 'Latin Love' and the dreamy gallop of 'Let's Meet Again' with the added bonus of some fine trumpet playing (apparently, it's all the rage once more: really 'Jazz In The House' is close to perfect).

'In My Dreams' another track featuring Rona Ray on vocals is more housey as is 'Come And Save Me' (feat Sabrina Chyld) that's sort of linked by the dreamy Balearic mood of 'Glasshouse' and 'Dusk'.

Shouldn't be no surprise to anyone as how good this is when we discover Abel (aka DJ/Collector Steve Butler is joined here by Lloyd Wright (he of Smoove & Turrell), members of Knats and Magic Number (also on Atjazz, see HERE) and if you like your house artisan, get onto 'Hand Made' featuring Brutha Basil - in the style of Darren Price's 'The Real House Music' (see review HERE).

Expect to hear more 'Cosmic Law' on the forthcoming YATM Radio Show with tracks like 'I Just Can't Wait' (another feat. Ms Chyld) back to back with Sun Palace's 'Rude Movements' (still available on BBE) in the Old n' New feature (constantly thinking about quality music); in the meantime, don't hang around and get ordering/buying; you don't want to be thinking how you'd let it go!

Artist: Abel

Title: Cosmic Law

Release date: 20th October, 2023

Label : Atjazz Record Company

Catalog Number : ARC250AD Digital / Bandcamp

Reveiw: PA NGU feat. Lhue Ntuza – Kalanga EP (Deep In Your Soul)

If you're thinking what's the equivalent of Belgium's Remco Evenepoel when it comes to Afro House record label's (Ed. and who hasn't), we know know it's Deep In Your Soul as they release this stunner from PA NGU featuring the incredible vocals of Lhue Ntuza. 

The original mix of 'Ndiyahamba' is so good you might be tempted not to bother with the remixes, but dispell that thought immediately as Da Lee LS (from Lesotho) spins out a mostly instrumental post-JMJ version that keeps the tension rolling.

And there's more as Nruza's Xhosa vocals are as equal prominent on the other track 'Luthando' with a busy remix by Aytiwan (Bel) which is likely to appear in playlists like Blackcoffee and closer to home DJs Bob Hill, Andy Garvey and our own, Sumsuch..

PS. Don't be put off by the artwork; apparently it's a wily creature called a  Capybara (Kalanga)

Artist: PA NGU feat. Lhue Ntuza

Title: Kalanga EP 

Release date: 13th October, 2023

Label : Deep In Your Soul

Catalog Number : DIYS012 Digital / Bandcamp 

Review: Yasushi Ide - A Place In The Sun (Kaoru Inoue Remix) (Love Injection Records)

When folks say the old cliche, "It's a small world", sometimes that world just goes and proves it as on this fantastic 7" release of Yasushi Ide's 'A Place In The Sun' by way of Karou Inoue remix on Brooklyn's Love Injecton Records!

Back in the day, Japan's Yasushi Ide made a name for himself (in the UK anyway) as Lonesome Echo Strings some 20 plus years ago on some 12 inchers with collaborations with nu-jazz/Gilles Peterson golden era 'names' as Monday Michiru and Big Youth and getting remixes by Joe Clausell, Nuyorican Soul (both doing loads of house remixes at the time) and Mr. Glücklich himself, Rainer Trüby (see review HERE).

He went onto work with worldwide known names as diverse as Tom Verlaine, Don Letts, James Chance, DJ Krush, Pharaoh Sanders, U-ROY and many more.  

So in 2012, there was a Japan only Ide album release with a track called 'A Place In The Sun' (that featured reggae legend Ernest Raglin no less) and it seem to have been "lost" until Love Injection’s Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele happened upon it in the form of a 1/50 dubplate remix by Kaoru Inoue - what are the chances?

Anyway, the remix itself is a slimmed down version of the original so it's a great warm-up Balearic beach groover but in the way of a re-imagined Lonnie Liston Smith in the Fender Rhodes lounge bar; and there's a dub version too!  

This single is the perfect introduction to the ever expanding world of J-Jazz, J-Reggae or J-House and wouldn't it be great if the album the track is taken from, 'Late Night Blues' gets a re-release too.

P.S. This is not the first time Love Injection Records have released such a track: listen to the Photay Remix of Phil Moffa's 'Ala Del Mundo' on BBC Radio 6 Music with Gilles Peterson (27 May 2023:  www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001m1h3) and the label are mates with musclecars too (they of the Jazzanova remix - see review HERE).  Seems like we all live in Brooklyn (baby), small world.

Artist : Yasushi Ide 

Title : A Place In The Sun (Kaoru Inoue Remix)

Release Date : 17th November, 2023

Catalog Number : LIR 009

Label : Love Injection Records

Format : 7" vinyl / Digital

Review: MISS C-LINE & The Rabidz - MISS C-LINE & The Rabidz (Independent)

This is where you put your jazz-funk hip hop [The] Roots into neo-soul vocals of Miss C-Line.

Recorded in just four days with James Iwa, Eric Valle and Iannis Obiols this stunning 10 track album has all the cool of a Brownswood Bubbler or Brainfeeder.

It stretches from a jazz noodle 'Squeezed (Pt.II) [where's Pt.. I]  where Flora Purim vs. Norma Winstone vs. Betty Wright in a Robert Glasper's Bates Motel to a hip-hop/bruk street style-old skool: 'Burnt' is so cool.

There's some radio edits and it'd be good to see if there were some more instrumental/dub versions; in fact, similar to 'Squeezed (Pt.II). 

The album launch is in Sudhaus, Basel so it's a must if you're in that part of the world this week.

Artist: MISS C-LINE & The Rabidz 

Title: MISS C-LINE & The Rabidz 

Release date: 13th October, 2023

Label : Independent

Catalog Number : -

Format: Digital 

Review: Peacey - Hold Me Back (feat. Clyde & Atjazz) (Atjazz Record Company)

Fans of Atjazz will know his label is diversifing into more soulful areas and were not going to suggest there's any back tracking on the strength of this new single, Peacey's 'Hold Me Back'.

It's been a hectic time for the label as it's released Magic Number' 'Good Morning Sunshine' (see review HERE) at one extreme and the trio of remixes by South Beach Recycling at the other (some dancefloor excellence, see review HERE)

'Hold Me Back' is definitely closer to 'Good Morning Sunshine' as it bounces along with some hard horns of Toronto-based Octavio N. Santos.

This is the first taste of an album due out next year; yummy.

Artist: Peacey

Title: Hold Me Back (feat. Clyde & Atjazz)

Release date: 13th October, 2022

Label: Atjazz Record Company

Catalog Number: ARC230AD Digital / Bandcamp

Review: Jullian Gomes, Kuniyuki Takahashi & Sio - Let Me Go (World Without End)

Another Julian Gomes track destined for the Colour & Pitch Sessions mix tracklisting as he's just so consistently good.

You'll recall his earlier singles, the collaboration with Jordan Arts on 'Home (see review HERE) and 'uHambo'.  This time he links up with Kuniyuki Takahashi (piano) and Sio and it's possibly even more dreamy due to the vocals whilst underlying Afro-house beats drives it along: you won't want to let go of this one.

There's an album release in November which we definitely won't be missing out on.

PS. Love the artwork

Artist: Jullian Gomes, Kuniyuki Takahashi & Sio
Title: Let Me Go

Release date: 6th October, 2023

Label: World Without End

Catalog Number: WWE012-S3

Review: Smoove & Turrell - Violet Hour / Echoes (Jalapeno Records)

Jalapeno Records continue to support the North-East's favourite soul funk combo, with a majestic double A-single of 'Violet Hour' and 'Echoes'.

Still recovering from the fact that Ronnie Foster featured on their last single, 'The Light'/'Joy!' (see review HERE), heres the latest from the duo and whilst it smack of some dancefloor past, the vocals/lyrics/production speak very much of the now; like right now, Joseph's Malik's new album 'Proxima Ebony' (see review HERE) being a prime example.

I love this 'Echoes' great performances all round with a low slung groove "from the night" with a hint of DC go-go in there and it's chart bound.

'Violet Hour' would be considered a bit more radio friendly (perhaps?) as if anyone is getting excited of the news of a Level 42 tour, this is how jazz-funk-disco-soul is done in 2023.

And if your new to Jalapeno heat, they're on a bit of a roll at the moment as this follows the remix of Izo FitzRoy's 'God Gets A Little Busy Sometimes' by Cosmodelica for some serious gospel house and Birmingham's favourite son (post Ozzie), Sam Redmore's 'Jazzdance' to name just two!

Artist: Smoove & Turrell

Title: Violet Hour / Echoes  

Release date: 6th October, 2023

Label: Jalapeno Records

Cat. No: JAL432

Format: Bandcamp / Digital

Review: Ihsan Al-Munzer - Belly Dance (BBE Music)

BBE's Middle Eastern Heavens series of re-issues of the albums made by legendary Lebanese composer Ihsan Al-Munzer is now on it's third release and it's the best yet.

Don't be put off by any non-PC thoughts of the 'Belly Dance' as this the next step along the pop-synth disco cross-over from Bollywood to Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre.

Taking the 1970s ground of Batov Records' 'Middle Eastern Grooves' (see review HERE) and includes some notable big tunes, like 'Fog El Makhel.

Don't forget to catch up with 'Sonatina For Maria' and 'Belly Dance Disco' as this is guaranteed to get you movin' - revealed midriff or not [try not to think of tattooed topless Geordies on the terraces].

Artist: Ihsan Al-Munzer

Title: Belly Dance 

Release date: 6th October, 2023

Label : BBE Music

Catalog Number : BBE527 Digital / Bandcamp 

Review: Souleance - Beautiful (Heavenly Sweetness/First Word)

Souleance, the pairing of DJ Soulist and Fulgeance have themselves paired up with record labels First Word and Heavenly Sweetness for their latest album, 'Beautiful'.

And it's quite obvious that this long standing collaboration of soul/hip-hop/jazz-funk and all things beats, have produced a 14 track album that is truely 'Beautiful'.

They can adjust to any style and they excel with the Latin beats like 'Wiggle', 'Felliz' and 'Mamãe Não Quer' (featuring Joao Selva) along with other contributions from 'trending' Kit Sebastian on 'Out Of Touch' and 'Lightweight' featuring Jenny Penkin (a track that's strong enough to be a single I'd say); perhaps next time label mate Léon 'Stress Killer' Phal will make an appearance (see review HERE).

And then their instrumentals are so strong like the space-synth-gospel house-funker 'Rapsodie' (like I said, they can 'adjust their style' and cram a lot into just one track!) and the best of the lot, party on down to that Booker T and the MGs inspired, 'La Fête'.

London's Jazz Cafe is hosting a 15th Birthday party for Heavenly Sweetness next week (11th October) showcasing Guts and David Walters live (see review HERE) and a DJ set from Souleance - it's the beautiful place to be.

This Souleance's fourth album in a little over 10 years and it's a beautifully executed that's also beautiful on the ear.

Artist: Souleance

Title: Beautiful

Release Date : 6th October, 2023

Catalog Number : -

Label : Heavenly Sweetness/First Word