A fantastic blend of spiritual jazz styles and electronic elements – served up here by the trio of drummer Betamax, keyboardist Danalogue, and saxophonist King Shabaka – the last of whom you might recognize as Shabaka Hutchings from a host of other hip projects on the contemporary London scene! Shabaka's work on tenor and bass clarinet really gives the record an earthy, organic core – which seems to let the keyboards really soar off into space, often with the sort of vibe that you'd guess from the group's name and the cover image on the record – in a wide flurry of live and amplified performance elements! At some level, the trio is almost London's answer to some of the jazz-meets-studio work from Chicago's International Anthem label – and like some of the groups who record for that imprint, these guys are all strong jazz musicians at the core – but performing at a level that's very beyond the ordinary. Titles include "Birth Of Creation", "Summon The Fire", "Blood Of The Past", "Astral Flying", "Super Zodiac", "The Universe Wakes Up", and "Timewave Zero". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant blast from The Comet Is Coming – their second album on Impulse in less than a year – and it's as exciting as anything they've done so far! Their core vibe of mixing spiritual jazz with electronic experimentation is here in full force, but they take it new directions. While the trio carries the influences from 70s spacey fusion influences and modern London jazz on the other, it always feels fully unique and of their own invention. Part of what's so exciting is they can strip things down to minimalist vibe of melodic sax, spare drums and bubbling electronics to far-reaching jazz funk from one track to the next – this is trio with range! Poet Joshua Idehen delivers a righteous vocal on the opener "All That Matters Is The Moments" that sets the stage for the soaring ride that follows, including "The Softness Of The Present", "The Afterlife", "Lifeforce Part I", "Lifeforce Part II" and "The Seven Planetary Heavens". 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". LP, Vinyl record album

A really great lineup of musicians from the London scene – coming together here in a mix of modes that's both electric and acoustic, jazz and more global-based – all with the far-reaching sounds you might expect from their previous work in groups like Collocutor or Comet Is Coming! There's a freshness here that's wonderful, right from the very first note – players with a jazz sensibility, but who've also drunk up all the criss-crossing modes that have been bubbling up in London in recent years – pushing past conventional rhythms and instrumental placements, and creating an intensity that takes their music to audiences who might never have listened to mainstream jazz! Players include Tamar Osborn on bass clarinet, flute, and soprano sax; Bex Burch on vibes, electronics, and percussion; Danalogue on Fender Rhodes and other keyboards; Al MacSween on prepared and conventional piano; and Sarathy Korwar on drums and tablas – and all the players seem to handle a wide variety of other instruments as well. Titles include "Prepare To Let Go", "Sounds Welcome", "Expand", "It's Complicated", "Murmuration", "How Many Are One", "Bold Dream", and "My Resonance". LP, Vinyl record album

Mad sounds from the late 60s world of Japanese pop – a mindblowing, ear-opening batch of singles we never would have gotten our hands on otherwise! The music here feels like sounds coming out of some backroom jukebox in a Nikkatsu "new action" film – or maybe the kind of offbeat pop that Quentin Tarantino might throw into a soundtrack – but there's also a much deeper range of sounds going on than you might expect, with wonderfully clever instrumentation, and lots of surprisingly heartfelt passages in the vocals! And sure, the language might be a barrier – but there's a really universal sense of appeal to this music – a variant of 60s soul and pop, focused through a different sort of lense – and the instrumentation alone is great – with wicked guitars, Hammond, and other garagey touches! As usual with Ace, the whole thing's supported with nicely detailed notes that tell the whole story behind these wonderful lost gems (we like this one even better than the fab first volume) – and titles include "Namida No Go Go" by Emy Jackson & Blue Comets, "Koi Gurui" by Chiyo Okumura, "Tokyo No Hito" by The Peanuts, "Warui Kuse" by Kazumi Yasui, "Boy & Girl" by Akiko Wada, "Namida No Mori No Monogatari" by Akiko Nakamura, "Saike Na Machi" by Reiko Mari, "Bazazz No 1" by Kayoko Ishuu, and "Furi Furi 5" by Linda Yamamoto. LP, Vinyl record album