With tracks by Kenneth Bagler, Sugar Daddy, Snow Patrol, Chris Coco and others 40 tracks total. CD

The jazzy genius of Tatsuo Sunaga gets turned in a cool direction here – as the set's an imagined soundtrack for the voyage of Crouka – the dog who disappeared from the launch of the Soviet rocket Soyuz2! That story hardly needs to be part of the description, though – as the record is overflowing with music that more than stands on its own – that wonderfully jazzy take on Japanese club that Sunaga served up so well during his glory days – live instrumentation mixed with clubby rhythms – in a lineup that includes vocals from Vince Andrews, Aaron Blackmon, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and even the great jazz singer Sheila Landis – who does a fantastic job on one number! There's light strings at a few points, fleshing out the sound wonderfully – and the set also features a few cool spoken bits and links – on titles that include "It's You", "Kid", "Welcome", "C'Est Vous Sur Le Pont", "Theme From Sunaga T Experience", and "Istonichoff". LP, Vinyl record album

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

A very groovy idea! This sparkling set takes older vocal jazz tunes from the Verve catalog, and uses the songs as the basis for new tracks by some of the better producers in the global groove underground. The mix of styles and eras is quite compelling – as torchy vocals drift over the top of cutting edge beats – creating a sound that's bound to get you digging through the crates for some of these singers, and reevaluating work from the past like never before! Titles include "Who Needs Forever" by Astrud Gilberto remixed by Thievery Corporation, "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday remixed by Tricky, "Hare Krishna" by Tony Scott remixed by King Britt, "See Line Woman" by Nina Simone remixed by Masters At Work, "Return To Paradise" by Shirley Horn remixed by Mark De Clive-Lowe, "Feelin Good" by Nina Simone remixed by Joe Claussell, "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" by Dinah Washington remixed by Rae & Christian, and "How Long Has This Been Going On" by Carmen McCrae remixed by MJ Cole. And don't miss the super-low priced Verve Unmixed CD! (Funky Compilations, New Grooves) CD