A double disc CD & DVD package showcasing one of our favorite souful acts on the contemporary landscape – Nicolay & Phonte's brilliant and ever-evolving Foreign Exchange project! Dear Friends showcases an acoustic concert performed for a private audience –- the great touring lineup that includes Zo!, Sy Smith, and singer/songwriter Jeanne Jolly. From the get go, we've been impressed by both the original songwriting from Foreign Exchange as well as the way they filter diverse influences into their own unique vibe – and this acoustic setting really gets to the heart and soul of it. This is an essential document for fans of the group, but it's also a fine intro if you're just now coming aboard! The live set includes "Fight For Love", "All Roads", "Take Off The Blues", "Lose Your Way", "Greatest Weapon Of All Time", a nice cover of James Taylor's "Something In The Way She Moves", "Laughing At Your Plans", "Daykeeper", "House Of Cards", Zo!'s "Greatest Weapon Of All Time" and "I Wanna Know". Also includes 2 new studio tracks: "Steal Away" feat vocals by Jeanny Jolly and piano by Zo! and "All The Kisses" feat Amber & Paris Strother of KING. (Neo Soul, New Grooves) CD

A sublime mix of tunes put together by Jazzanova to celebrate the 5th anniversary of their groundbreaking radio show – one that features 6 completely exclusive tunes, plus a wealth of other great bits from a variety of different artists! The vibe here is laidback and mellow, yet still plenty soulful – almost in the Secret Love territory explored by Jazzanova in earlier years, but with a fair bit more electricity overall, and a really global sort of consciousness in the soulful vocals on the tunes! Even when things get a bit abstract, they're still plenty funky – and there's a crisp, crackling sensibility that unites all the different tracks in the mix. 20 tracks in all – including "Just A Lil Lovin" by Jazzanova & Outlines, "In The Remix (Starship interpretation)" by Capital A, "Candlelight" by Wahoo, "Or At Least" by The Slapped Eyeballers, "Excelsior" by Ame, "Intermission" by Soulphiction, "Flashback (Jazzanova's mashed bag)" by Fat Freddy's Drop, "Skitsophrenic (part 2)" by Leroy & Darnell, "Nowhere (Atjazz Astro Black mix)" by Clara Hill, "My Vision (Dixon edit)" by Agora Rhythm, "Sun Of A Beach (London mix)" by Pharoah Roche, "Beatzeps" by Jaslopski, "Step Off" by Arken, "I Just Wanna Sing For You" by Norman Weeks & The Revelations, "So Long" by Nicola Kramer, and "No Memory Of Time (reggae version)" by Eva Be with Joe Dukie. CD

Koop are back after a long time away from the record racks – and apart from makeup on the cover, it's been well worth the wait for the music! The sound here is a great extension of the grooves the pair laid down on their first album – a soaring blend of jazz and dancefloor rhythms that's still head and shoulders above most of the other work it's inspired in recent years. Back again are tight rhythms, lots of warm acoustic instrumentation, and a blend of classic styles with 21st Century leanness – all in a way that few others can match, save for perhaps the mighty Nicola Conte. Instrumentation features plenty of vibes and warm acoustic basslines – and most tracks have vocals, by a variety of singers who include Earl Zinger, Ane Brun, Yukimi Nagano, and Mikael Sundin. Titles include "Koop Island Blues", "Come To Me", "Forces Darling", "Let's Elope", "Beyond The Son", "Whenever There Is You", "Drum Rhythm A", and "I See A Different You". LP, Vinyl record album

Alex Attias has always given us some really creative sounds in his own music – so we've got some mighty high expectations when he brings together a selection of tracks by other artists for BBE! Fortunately, the record not only lives up to those expectations, but does them one better – by opening us up to some overlooked contemporary cuts that all have the cosmic touches of Attias' work on the London scene – then interweaving them with some older tracks that resonate even more strongly in the territory! There's some wonderful work from recent years that show just how far the best side of the broken beat legacy has evolved – and other older cuts have a cosmic vibe that's plenty righteous too, with some great jazzy currents that really deepen the vibe of the collection. Titles include "Midnight Magic" by Cro Magnon with Roy Ayers, "My Dream Came True" by Root Soul, "Cascade" by Tatham Mensah Lord & Ranks, "Do The Dance" by Grooveman Spot, "Over & Over" by Material with Nona Hendryx, "Curiosity (Zanzibar rmx)" by Nicole Willis, and "It's You (disco alert mix)" by Sunaga T Experience. LP, Vinyl record album

London DJ Nik Weston put together this hip set of modern tracks – a 2CD selection of groovers that includes lots of singles we've stocked in the past few years, and a number of hard to find (and expensive!) Japanese titles! There's a total of 20 cuts in all – and titles include "Earth Is The Place" by Nathan Haines, "Spiritual War (Kaidi Tathham rmx)" by Fertile Ground, "Outside From The Inside" by Modaji, "Trash Da Junk" by Da One Away, "Buttamilk (Domu's Soya spread rmx)" by Oba Funke, "Spaces & Places" by Mitchell & Dewbury, "Going Down" by Joi, "Ladies" by Agent K, "Tempest (Atjazz rmx)" by Kabuki, "Meu Samba (Nicola Conte's Bossa Ahead rmx)" by Eli Goulart e Banda Do Mato, "It's You (Versione Tokyo Bossa)" by Sunaga't Experience, "Play Back" by Yukihiro Fukutomi, and "Bamboozled" by Watusi. (Funky Compilations, New Grooves) CD

Music from Henry Mancini, Peggy Lee, Titan, Ursula 1000, Pizzicato Five, Fatboy Slim, Dimitri From Paris, Koop Featuring Yukimi Nagano, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Arling & Cameron, Ludovic Navarre, Kinky, Chris Mancini & Lennart, Nicola Conte, Les Hommes, and Mocean Worker. (Now Sound, New Grooves) CD

From the dancefloor, to the jazz combo, and back again – the Re:Jazz project takes a surprising twist with this remix follow-up to their brilliant first album! On that outing, Re:Jazz re-made recent dancefloor tunes in new jazz-based versions – going for the warmest, most soulful elements of the tunes – and placing them in a tradition of acoustic jazz dance classics. Here, those re-made versions are given a re-mix treatment – but in a very careful way, one that really preserves the jazzy magic of the originals! It's confusing, we know – but once you catch the warm grooves of the set, you won't care about where they're coming from – as the sum of the total is far greater than any of its tremendous parts! And speaking of parts, the set features remix work by Nicola Conte, RAS, Swell Session, Les Gammas, Dublix Inc, Jazztronik, Bugge Wesseltoft, Yukihiro Fukutomi, and others – on tunes from the original album that include "Style", "Second Sight", "Arena", "People Come Running", "Quiet Nights", "My Love Is Higher", "Torch Of Freedom", and "Release Your Mind". CD

A very well-titled set – and the best so far in this cutting-edge series! The "beats and pieces" this time around are mostly underground club tracks from the past few years – the cream of the crop of the best bits that hit our New Grooves section, often served up in harder-to-find mixes that represent the best version of the tunes so far! There's no overall stylistic logic to the set, which is what makes it so great – as mellow soul steps into funky club, into spacey fusion, global house, 21st century groove, then dancefloor jazz! 2CD set features 22 tracks that include "Wake Up" by Herbert, "La Malanga (Kenny Dope rmx)" by Bobby Hutcherson, "Fall Into You" by Stateless, "Hot In Here" by Tiga with Jake Shears, "Take Off (Nicola Conte's Campi's Idea version)" by Nathan Haines and Marco Di Marco, "Bukom Mashie" by Oscar Sulley & The Uhuru Dance Band, "Somebody New" by Georg Levin with Clara Hill, "Besides Myself" by DJ Shaheer Williams, "Timbuktu" by Pan African Electronic Beats, "Someone To Love" by Crusho, "Love & War (version)" by Amp Fiddler, "Forty Days" by Billy Brooks, and "Fall Into You" by Stateless. (Funky Compilations, New Grooves) CD

Modern tunes – but with a very classic groovy feel! Of all the Italian efforts to take an older lounge sound and update it for the modern dancefloor, the work of Nicola Conte and the Schema label has been some of the best. This 13 track set offers proof of Conte's genius – and offers up some sparkling groovers all graced with the careful selection you've come to expect from Conte's Fez Studio. Titles include "Meeting With His Majesty" by Theivery Corp, "The Hip Sheik" by The Karminsky Experience, "Funky Bikini" by Ursula 1000, "Arabesque" by Nicola Conte, "Girl On A Mission" by Les Hommes, "Whenever" by Les Gammas, "We Don't Need No Smurfs Here" by Cosmo Vitelli, and "Hi Fi Trumpet" by Stereo Action Unlimited. Very nice – especially if you've enjoyed other Schema modern releases, like Break N Bossa or the Soulstance album! CD

Massive grooves from Schema Records – a special Japanese-only collection that features some of the best recent work on the label, mixed in with a few key classics from the early days! There's a simple, elegant feel to most of the tracks here – a sound based in older jazz and bossa roots, carried off in a blend of acoustic instrumentation with slight contemporary programs and processing – but never too much to obscure the warmth of the sources! Most titles have a warmth that's undeniable – far more than you might guess from the stark black cover image – and tracks include "Stay In Mood" by Paolo Fedreghini & Marco Bianchi, "This Is What You Are" by Mario Biondi & High Five Quintet, "Samba Royale" and "Afro Impression" by Paolo Achenza Trio, "Cortante" by Gerardo Frisina, "Missione A Bombay" by Nicola Conte, and "Cinemaroma 3", "Destination Moon", "No Problem", and "Driving" by The Dining Rooms. CD

Comet Is Coming are one of those groups who are almost a genre unto themselves – certainly part of the rich criss-crossing of styles that has been taking place on the London scene of the past decade or so – but also a trio who've found a way to forge forward and hold the world at bay with a record like this! At the core, the approach is simple – tremendous tenor work from Shabaka Hutchings, drums from Betamax, and keyboards from Danalogue – the latter two of whom are equally important as producers, in the way they take the live performance at the core, and work it into so many other shifting shapes and sounds! Hutchings' solos are always kept mostly intact, which makes for a beating soul to the record, and a nice link to previous generations of jazz – on titles that include "Pyramids", "Tokyo Nights", "Technicolour", "Code", "Lucid Dreamer", "Atomic Wave Dance", "Mystik", and "The Hammer". (Jazz, New Grooves) LP, Vinyl record album

A really wonderful project from Gianluca Petrella – one that seems to take all the deeper currents he used in his work with Nicola Conte, and push them even farther here on his own! There's a righteous depth to the record we never would have expected from Petrella a few years before – an album-length set that's full of jazz and soul, equally intertwined – with a quality that almost feels a lot more like some of the best London work in recent years than some of the more familiar modes we know from the Schema label. Petrella's at the helm of the proceedings, leading the group on trombone – and there's plenty of key guests on the record throughout – including Soweto Kinch on tenor and vocals, Beppe Scardino on baritone, Pasquale Calo on tenor, Vanja Contu on harp, and Anna Bassy on vocals. Titles include "Nomads", "Ancient Jazz", "Unknown Dimension", "Natsu", "Comes From The Ground", "Universal Language", "Wonder", and "Connection". CD

A really wonderful project from Gianluca Petrella – one that seems to take all the deeper currents he used in his work with Nicola Conte, and push them even farther here on his own! There's a righteous depth to the record we never would have expected from Petrella a few years before – an album-length set that's full of jazz and soul, equally intertwined – with a quality that almost feels a lot more like some of the best London work in recent years than some of the more familiar modes we know from the Schema label. Petrella's at the helm of the proceedings, leading the group on trombone – and there's plenty of key guests on the record throughout – including Soweto Kinch on tenor and vocals, Beppe Scardino on baritone, Pasquale Calo on tenor, Vanja Contu on harp, and Anna Bassy on vocals. Titles include "Nomads", "Ancient Jazz", "Unknown Dimension", "Natsu", "Comes From The Ground", "Universal Language", "Wonder", and "Connection". LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent compilation of jazzy grooves from the great Ricky Tick label – featuring tracks from Five Corners Quintet, Timo Lassey, Jukka Eskola, Auteur Jazz, Stance Brothers, Povo and others –some of the best material from Ricky Tick albums to date, plus hard to find vinyl only releases and other hard-to-find bits! The set certainly glows with jazz heat, no one would argue to the contrary, from hard swinging classic sounds, to more Latin and bossa influenced numbers, and some more moody material, all down played with passion and produced with a lively immediacy. 13 tracks in all: "Early Move" by Timo Lassey, "Skinny Dipping" by Five Corners Quintet, "Serenata" by LTC, "Three Corners" (Nicola Conte's Sahib's Samba version) by Five Corners Quintet, "Athatoolagooloo" by Astro Can Caravan, "City Blues" by Povo, "Chip 'n' Charge" by Jukka Eskola, "Once Upon A Summertime" by Olli Ojajarvi Trio and more. CD