Soul jazz vocalist Dwight Trible gathers the forces for this magnificent effort – an album pairing his emotionally rich vocals and singular spirit with a group of largely west coast allstars – and it's pure genius! The Life Force Trio, from what we can tell, is simply the moniker for a small army of free thinking guests from the deep funk, hip hop and turntablist underground assembled by Carlos Nino of Ammon Contact. The guest list includes SA-RA, J Dilla, Madlib, Daedelus, Scienze Of Life, Nate Morgan, Dwight's Build An Ark fellows and many others. It features some vocals Dwight has laid down for other albums, and some unreleased recordings – how they pair up so intricately well, with such fresh and varied production is a beautiful mystery. This record could have merely served as an interesting exercise in combined talents, but instead it absolutely soars, and could be remembered as Dwight's masterpiece! It may also be one of the best Ninja Tune albums ever! Tracks include "Equipoise" feat SA-RA, "Freedom Dance", "The Rhythm", "Waves Of Infinite Harmony", a fresh take on Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", "Love Is The Answer", "I Was Born On Planet Rock", "Constellations" feat Super Nova, "Celestial Blues" and more. The CD also includes a bonus disc on instrumentals! CD

A record that's far more beautiful than you'd guess from the "carcass" in the title – a strong set of vocal work from singer Kimiko Kasai – easily one of the hippest Japanese singers of the 70s! Although Kasai's sometimes straight on the album, she also stretches out in freer, more expressive modes – at a level that's quite similar to some of the more experimental modes used by Karin Krog during the same period – although with a slightly unique feel as well. Backings are from the quartet of reedman Kosuke Mine – whose lines on soprano and alto sax are almost worth the price of the album alone – and all tracks are long, with titles that include "Be Still My Soul", "Round Midnight", "Yellow Carcass In The Blue", "Alone Together", "River Dry", and "Blues In C Minor". CD

Shigeko Toya looks mighty righteous on the cover – and she sounds mighty righteous on the record, too – working both as a pianist and a singer, and with a quality that's very different than most other Japanese vocalists of the time! The tracks are long, and often drenched in deeply soulful currents – both from the piano, and from the excellent work on bass from Takashi Mizuhashi – as Toya takes on a host of American classics, singing with unusual inflections that really fit the way she vocalizes the tunes – almost some sort of late 60s Bay Area hybrid of blues and jazz with some Fillmore influences – although the set itself is mostly acoustic, and definitely jazz all the way through. Other players include Akitoshi Igarashi on alto, Masayuki Takayanagi on guitars, and Masaru Imada on piano too – on titles that include "Fine & Mellow", "Unchain My Heart", "Body & Soul", "Willow Weep For Me", "Angel Eyes", and "The Very Thought Of You". CD

A really great vocal session from 70s Japan – and one that's got a much more spiritual sound at times than some of the others from the scene! Pianist Shigeko Toya has a way of really taking her time with the tunes – finding the right sort of vibe, then opening things up carefully – as singer Mari Nakamoto comes into the mix once the sound is right – using these very different inflections that are almost in some of the more expressively experimental modes of the European female vocal scene of the time. There's some standards on the set, but even these are given very different readings – and titles include "Greensleeves", "The Blues Ain't Nothin", "Hey There", "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To", and "That Lucky Old Sun". (Jazz, Vocalists) CD