A record that forever changed the role of the DJ and turntable when it was dropped on the world – certainly not the first record to feature an artist building sound out of a mixture of old records and his own creation, but definitely one of the most hyped and most exposed over the years! For some reason, Shadow was able to find a way to take all the skills that hip hop DJs had been developing for 20 years, mixing them with some of the darkness of the European production scene – and then getting a wider audience to really appreciate both his own talents, and all the other inspirations that drove him – something that still seems to resonate all these many years later, as Shadow opened the door for many others to appreciate all the sounds that we'd been loving in the underground! And despite all his later work, this classic full length set might still be his best – a well-deserved classic, with titles that include "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt", "The Number Song", "Changeling", "What Does Your Soul Look Like (pts 1 & 4)", "Mutual Slump", "Organ Donor", and "Midnight In A Perfect World". (Hip Hop, New Grooves) LP, Vinyl record album

A very cool project – one that was initiated by the late Tony Allen in collaboration with Detroit keyboardist/percussionist Jeff Mills – and which is carried forth here by a trio with a really soaring, far-reaching vibe! Percussion is at the core – played both by Mills and by Prabhu Edouard, who adds in all this great work on tablas, which grounds the acoustic side of the record – as Jean Phi Dary plays keyboards along with Mills, and really sends the whole thing climbing to the skies! There's a mix of jazz and broken beat energy going on here – although the beats certainly aren't broken, and we're using that reference to indicate some of the best spiritual inspirations of the 4Hero generation. Yet these guys are definitely onto something new, and very much their own – on titles that include "Rising Water", "Words Of Wisdom", "Peace Pipe", and "Metamorphosis". LP, Vinyl record album

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

Richly complex later work from Larry "Mr Fingers" Heard – proof that he wasn't just a simple house musician on the Chicago scene! The album's a great illustration of the bridge that Heard helped provide from original house towards some of the deeper, more complicated modes that took hold once the 21st Century approached – a style that was especially important in paving the way for some of the bigger names from the London scene, especially those most strongly influenced by jazz. Heard's keyboard lines here are supposedly improvised over rhythm programs – and while they're not as openly jazzy as you might expect, they're certainly a far distance from basic house music – making the album an adventurous instrumental affair for the time! Titles include "Snowcaps", "One Three Five Seven", "Midnight Movement", and "Dolphin Dream". (House Music, New Grooves) LP, Vinyl record album