The third album from Clara Hill, as the title suggests, is a folk orientated affair which although is a pleasant, overall lacks the impact of her previous outings. That’s not to say there aren’t any great tracks here, there are, particularly the duet with Thief, ‘About You’, the Minnie Riperton influenced ‘Wonderful World’ and the Marc Mac produced ‘Everything’. It just would have been nice to have a few more tracks of this standard included.

Andy Allen

The fourth volume in the ‘Secret Love’ series and yet another quality selection of modern tripped-out folk delights. Midlake’s ‘Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Mix)’, ‘Duet’ by Breaks Co-Op, Roe Beck’s ‘Atlantic’ and ‘The Loved’ from Paul Weller are tracks I was previously unfamiliar with but all instantly hit the spot. Also included is Clara Hill’s ‘About You’ from her new ‘Folkwaves’ album, ‘Down Down’ by Thief, Nostalgia 77’s Little Steps and ‘Twice’ by Yukimi Nagano’s new project Little Dragon.

Andy Allen

Japanese jazz quartet Quasimode follow up their debut ‘Oneself-Likeness’ with another first rate set packed with firing jazz dance material. ‘The Man From Nagpur’, ‘For Self Defense’, ‘Percussion Revolver’ and ‘Dark Beauty’ featuring Mika Arisaka all hit the spot but what makes this album so special is a guest appearance from my favourite female jazz vocalist bar none, Carmen Lundy. She graces the spoken word intro ‘Over The Horrizon’, the immaculate ‘Object In The Mirror’ and a new version of her classic ‘Time Is Love’. Need I say more!

Andy Allen

Following his version of Derrick May’s ‘Strings Of Life’, released a couple of months back on 12", Christian Prommer continues the theme throughout his debut solo album, taking his favourite house tracks and reinterpreting them in a jazz dance style. The aforementioned ‘Strings Of Life’ is included along with great versions of Mr. Fingers’ ‘Can You Feel It’, Master At Work’s ‘Nervous Track’ Isoul8’s ‘Beau Mot Plage’, Ame’s ‘Rej’ and Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans Europa Express.

Andy Allen

This takes salsa away from the dreadful dance classes and back to the streets, raw and edgy. 15 great tracks which include Ozomatli, Spam Allstars, Alex Wilson, Cuban Cowboys, Los Amigos Invisibles and two for special note – Baku and ‘Desde Cuba Hasta Afghanistan’ and Roberto Rodriguez featuring Irving Fields ‘Wolfie’s Corner’ remix. Great compilation.

Graham Radley

Great debut album from this group of Francesca Amati (vocals) Mattia Mercuriali (guitar) Marco Trinchillo (acoustic guitar/drums) and Paolo Gradari (trumpet/guitar/keys) from Ravenna in north eastern Italy. The pointers/influences are Bjork, Aphex Twin and Belle & Sebastien with folk at the core but this is music that evolves beautifully in its own chilled world.

Graham Radley

Wildly good this one, Champeta is the vibrant Afro-Colombian sound from the street’s of Colombia’s Caribbean coast with Congolese soukous, Ghanaian highlife, and Nigerian Afro-beat meeting Latin and exploding in rhythms. The project took 3 years to put together and has Colombian champeta stars Viviano Torres, Luis Towers and Justo Valdez jamming with African legends Dally Kimoko, Diblo Dibala, Sékou Diabaté, Nyboma and Rigo Star.
Afro-Colombian grooves meet Africa and I’d buy it just to hear Diblo & Rigo fingers caressing those guitar strings into life. Highly recommended.

Graham Radley

The Birmingham collective hook up with some of the city’s finest reggae musicians – Moses and Jaffa from the excellent Crucial music plus Conrad Kelly (Steel Pulse/UB40) aka the Mighty Tree who set down a mighty rhythm structure for the GCorp team to weave in their dub magic. You also get a limited edition cookbook with original recipes for classic West Indian food plus original artwork by Ninety. Absolutely ******* brilliant, the queue starts here for Volume 4!

Graham Radley

Excellent live recording, at this jazz festival, from accordionist Richard Galliano which was the first appearance of this new group made up of Alexis Cardenas, Rafaël Mejitas and Philippe Aerts. The concert also features Hamilton De Holanda on mandolin. Very good.

Graham Radley

Film tunes from the vaults of Warner & Atlantic with 21 classic tracks which include ‘Theme From Lawrence Of Arabia (Les Baxter) Batman Theme (The Markettes) A Taste Of Honey (Esther Phillips) Midnight Cowboy (Young-Holt Unlimited) Theme From Mash (Jimmy Smith) Our Mann Flint (Herbie Mann) and 77 Sunset Strip (Warren Baker). A good dose of nostalgia.

Graham Radley