There's never been a magazine like this – a publication that seems to cover jazz of the past and the future with equal enthusiasm – and which has a way of making everything come together in a wonderfully vivid way! As with previous issues, the choice of subjects seems very close to our own hearts – as a mix of great writers take on artists who include Petter Eldh, Shabaka Hutchings, Jason Moran, Darius Jones, Sven Wunder, and spiritual reedman Carlos Garnett – while also looking at the Sounds Of Freedom residency, and the cool Hip Holland Hip record as well! Speaking of records, Mats Gustafsson turns in a great entry of his Discaholic column – which is then followed by pages of great reviews of other jazz treasures from the past and present. The whole magazine is done in a book-style format – squarebound, 128 pages, very little ads, and cool color images throughout! Magazine

Badbadnotgood have always been pretty damn great, actually – and never better than on album IV – a remarkable step forward for the group! As ever, they take inspiration from some of the best prog, jazz, funk (and proggy jazz funk...they blend) of the 70s and beyond, but weave it into fairly distinctive and genuinely fun modern sound. It's built to last, too –we're sure be able to come back to their work in a couple decades and it'll still work! IV finds them with the confidence to trade in some fairly subtle, smoothed out moments between to more boisterous ones, and they're more dexterous in the instrumentation – especially in the horns, keys and percussion – but some great vibes, strings, flute and more when the mood calls. Includes the great vocal track "Time Moves Slow" with Sam Herring of Future Islands, "And That, Too", "Lavender", "IV", "Chompy's Paradise", "Structure No. 3", "Cashmere", "Hyssops Of Love" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A magnificent set from the Chicago Afrobeat Project – the kind of group that makes us plenty proud we live in the Windy City! The record's got a quality that's a bit more ambitious than you might guess – a complicated style that's still plenty grooving, but which really features some sophisticated instrumentation overall – mostly in familiar Afrobeat modes, but served up with a freshness that we really love! The group's quite large – with instrumentation that's heavy on horns and percussion, but also features some killer keyboards too – snaking through the mix with a soulful vibe that really hits home, especially on the more righteous numbers in the set. Ugochi sings on one track, but the main focus is instrumental – and the great Bobby Broom also plays guitar on one cut too! Titles include "Superstar (part 7)", "Chupacabra", "Carcass", "Fix & Release", "Media Man", "Cloister", and "BSCG2". CD

The first proper Mr Scruff full length in more than half a decade – and as you might have gathered from the boisterous breakbeat funk and more soulful undercurrents of recent 12"s – he's broadened his sonic tapestry a bit! Ninja Tuna is the namesake title for his own imprint at his longtime home Ninja Tune – and if he's not out to break the mold on tried and true formulas, he does a fine job of spinning some engrossing soundscapes! Funk, soul, house and bedrock hip hop beats meet masterfully, and a couple of the best tracks are inflected with more accessible groove via some excellent guest vocalists – including Alice Russell and Anreya Tatiani, and Quantic and Pete Simpson drop by, too! Titles include "Test The Sound", "Music Takes Me Up", "Donkey Ride" featuring Quantic, "Hairy Bumpercress", "Whiplash", "Nice Up The Function", "Bang The Floor", "Get On Down", "Hold On" with Andreya Triana, "Give Up To Get", "Kalimba", "This Way" feat Pete Simpson" and "Stockport Carnival". LP, Vinyl record album

Chemical Brothers still riding high at the end of the 90s! In some ways, Surrender scales back on bigger, more boisterous big beat vibe for slightly hipper dancefloor vibe – but there's really a ton of ambitiousness here. Just a glance at the guest appearances is clue of how wild the ride is – a far reaching lot for sure – including Missy Elliot, Bernard Sumner, Hope Sandoval, Bobby Gillespie, Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev and more. Includes "Music: Response", "Under The Influence", "Out Of Control", "Orange Wedge", "Let Forever Be", "The Sunshine Underground", "Asleep From Day", "Got Glint?", "Hey Boy Hey Girl", "Surrender" and "Dream On". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the few truly strong and original jazz LPs on the Charlie Parker label – and one of the best early sides by Slide! Despite a hokey title and cover image, the record really has a lot going on – and shows Slide stretching out as an arranger from his days at Atlantic. Side one features the extended "Cloister" dance suite – a 4 part work composed and arranged by Slide, showing his more expansive approach to jazz, one that he'd realize more strongly in European settings of the 60s and 70s. Players include Willie Thomas, Hobart Dotson, Benjamin Jacobs-El, and George Coleman – and the piece comes off wonderfully, very hip, but still swinging and soulful. Side two features shorter numbers – all Gershwin, like "Summertime", "I Loves You Porgy", "It Ain't Necessarily So", and "Bess You Is My Woman". LP, Vinyl record album

A round two knockout for Gnarls Barkley – an album we think is better than the landmark St Elsewhere LP – boisterous pop art & soul from Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo! We were slightly trepid when the Odd Couple was announced, fearing a hasty attempt to rekindle the magic that clearly caught everyone by surprise a couple years ago, but that worry is squashed. This is a near masterpiece, kids! Incredibly deep and impressively spun from obscure sound library records, Italian soundtracks, and all kinds of moddish samples by Danger Mouse – with warmly scratchy vocals by Cee-Lo that are as fresh as anything he's ever done. Again, he's laughing in the face of darkness and depression, and somehow making a party out of it! You won't find another mainstream success story this year that's so fun and charming on a superficial level – while truthfully dark and troubled if you focus some on the lyrics. Hype be damned, this one's amazing! Tracks include "Charity Case", "Who's Gonna Save My Soul", "Going On", "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)", "Would Be Killer", "Open Book", "Whatever", "Surprise", "No Time Soon", "She Knows", "Blind Mary", "Neighbors", "A Little Better". CD

A wonderful batch of Darlene Love recordings for Phil Spector – excellent solo numbers plus gems with The Blossoms, The Crystals and Bob B Soxx And The Blue Jeans! By nature of her career, Darlene worked in a number of different styles over the years– from R&B orchestra, to sweetly laidback soul, to boisterous girl group and back again. Sounds Of Love focuses on the big early-to-mid 60s years with Spector at the helm, but opens and closes with earlier and later gems, and it's terrific stuff all the way! Titles include "No Other Love", That's When The Tears Start" and "Good Good Lovin'" with The Blossoms, "He's A Rebel" with The Crystals, "Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts?" with Bob B Soxx And The Blue Jeans, "Run Run Runaway", "A Fine, Fine Boy", "Stumble And Fall", "A Long Way To Be Happy", "Lord, If You're A Woman" and more. CD

Legendary jumpin' blues/pioneering R&B by Roy Brown & His Mighty Men! Roy Brown is one of the more underappreciated trailblazers of the late 40s/early 50s, and all you need to do is to drop the needle on "Butcher Pete" to hear for yourself how much more his acclaim his legacy deserves. It's a total blast! It's got perfectly raw, thumping bass and drums rhythms, a heavy sax, rolling bit of piano and boisterous vocals. Perfection! 78 RPM, Vinyl record

A sublime meeting of three incredibly well-matched players – all artists who worked together in various formations back in the 60s, but waited another 30 years to record here as a trio! There's an airiness that really uniques all the artists in the trio – a sense of space and grace that's always heard in the piano of Don Friedman and guitar of Atilla Zoller, and which re-emerges wonderfully here in the alto of Konitz – recorded with a crispness and focus that is sometimes missing in other later sessions. The notes hang in space here beautifully – never too academic, but always with the sense of tone and timing that was probably first inspired by Lee's work of the 50s, in recordings that featured guitarist Billy Bauer, who always was clearly an inspiration to the sound of Attilla Zoller. But the actual formation here is more in the mode of the Hans Koller school, as he interpreted some of Konitz ideas in the German scene of the 50s and 60s – and the recording echoes with a sense of perfection that takes us back to some of the Koller/Zoller collaborations for MPS. Titles include "Images", "Thingin", "Joy For Joy", "Opus D'Amour", "Cloisterbells", and "Suite For 3". CD

We're alright. . .don't nobody worry 'bout us, we're smiling like fools at the sounds of this most classic of lowbrow 80s comedies – the unimpeachably hilarious Caddyshack – with we-don't-care-how-uncool-you-think-they-may-be pop anthems by Kenny Loggins and original music by Johnny Mandel! The Loggins tunes blend a masterful ear for the pop & soul hits of the previous couple decades, they're undeniable fun and catchy (if profoundly unhip, boo and hoo) and the cheeky bits of score by Mandel co-opting classical compositions in the interest of toilet humor are just as boisterous. Titles include "I'm Alright", "Make The Move" and "Mr Night" by Kenny Loggins, "There She Goes" by The Beat, "Divine Intervention", "Marina" and "The Big Bang" by Johnny Mandel and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Prodigy's solo debut HNIC – gritty and raw from intro to outro, with a methodical flow on par the with the best of his work with Mobb Deep in the best moments – while taking stylistic detours! Naturally, there's a personal vibe to the peak tracks here that he couldn't explore so singularly on rhymes in the Mobb Deep canon, but there's some less personal, more boisterous bangers here too. Stands the test of time pretty strongly production wise, too. Includes the classic "Keep It Thoro", "Wanna Be Thugs", "Infamous Minded", "Trials Of Love", "What U Rep", "YBE", "Three", "Can't Complain" and more, plus guest appearances by Havoc, Big Noyd, Cormega and production on a few tracks by Alchemist. LP, Vinyl record album