Back in 2004 Steve Williams from UKvibe gave me a copy of a four track cd from a new Birmingham band called the Sugar Beats. This featured a cracking version of Stevie Wonder’s “As”, a live version of the “Balcon Hotstep” and the excellent “French Girl from Luton”. I’ve been hooked ever since. The Sugar Beats were formed by Chris Mapp and Leo Altarelli, and then became a seven piece band for “Search for Peace”. The foundation here is jazz, which not only works on dancefloors but also when pottering around the house. Leo’s vocal works a treat whether scatting or in a full vocal workout. Top marks to these guys for persisting and getting their music out there, now all you’ve got to do is support!

Simon Harrison

Message boards and forums have been generating great excitement and hype for the return of Koop, and “Koop Islands” kicks off where their 2001 album “Waltz for Koop” left off. If there is any slight difference, it’s that they’ve gone further back in time for the influences to the 1930’s and 1940’s and the days of swing. Bringing these ideas up to date is refreshing and a joy to listen to. Yukimi Nagano is back again on vocals and sounding as amazing as ever on tracks “Come To Me”, “I See A Different You” and “Beyond The Son”. Rob Gallagher also features and I think it’s his best work since the first Earl Zinger productions, and, finally, Norwegian vocalist Ane Brun completes the package perfectly. Oscar has been quoted as saying “We play jazz”, and they do that very well.

Simon Harrison

Roy Hargrove returns with a straight-ahead jazz set released at the same time as his more soul and funk orientated project ‘Distractions’ under his RH Factor moniker. Although ‘Distractions’ continues the vibe established on ‘Hard Groove’ it doesn’t quite match the standard of ‘Nothing Serious’. This set opens with the superb title track before moving into ‘A Day In Vienna’, both of which have a strong Latin vibe. ‘Camaraderie’ is a pure bop beauty but not to be overlooked is the heavy groove of ‘Salima’s Dance’ and the beautiful swing of ‘The Gift’. A truly timeless piece deserving of your full attention.

Andy Allen

From Winnipeg, Canada, El Salvador born Luis Francisco Cardona (Solidaze) comes with a down-tempo set of hypnotic electro-soul fused with elements of house and nu jazz. Although mainly instrumental it’s the tracks featuring vocalist Sarah Michaelson that appeal the most, ‘Anti Animosity’ and ‘In The Meantime’. Of the instrumentals try ‘I Too Call Myself I’, ‘Late Night Movement’ and ‘Curve Seven’ for some deep darkness.

Andy Allen

After years of production and remix work the nine strong collective finally deliver their debut album. As you would expect it’s largely a broken affair and features a whole host of guest artists such as Bembe Segue, Sharlene Hector, Vanessa Freeman, Michelle Escoffery, Yolanda Quartey, Alex Lattimore, Izzi Dunn, I.G. Culture, Colonel Red and Mark de Clive-Lowe. The singles ‘Booty La La’ and ‘Sounds Like / Once Twice’ are present along with the monster ‘Redhanded’ with Bembe and Don Ricardo on vocals. The vocal hook, "I caught ya you stupid motha f**ka" is absolutely devastating. Other highlights include the Vula fronted ‘It Don’t Work Like That’ and ‘Consequences’ both of which have an 80s boogie flavour, the P-Funk influenced ‘Knocks Me Off My Feet’, ‘Happy Days’ and the conscious message of ‘Worla Hurt’.

Andy Allen

Hitop bring together a selection of ten recent Spanish nu jazz cuts for the second instalment of ‘Spain Is Different’, including ‘En La Calle, On The Street’ by Gecko Turner, Mojo Project’s ‘Nana For Child’ (instrumental) and ‘Cabo Verde Strut’ (Wagon Cookin Mix) from Casbah 73. Better though are Pablo Sanchez’s ‘Umba’ where afro-beat meets broken-beat, the bright and breezy ‘Summertime’ by Soul Dynamics featuring Wanda Felicia and JP Duet’s ‘Charanga Pa Gozar’, a more traditional Latin offering.

Andy Allen

Out of Moers, Germany comes the third in the compilation series ‘Fantastic Freeriding’ which showcases music from Kabanjak, Protassov, Deela, Subrok Mission and Ancient Astronauts. The beats are heavy throughout with touches of soul, funk, hip-hop, dub and electronica all thrown in along the way. The set’s opener, ‘The Rain’ and ‘Night People’, both from Kabanjak along with Ancient Astronauts’ ‘Until The Stars Go Out’ all beautiful atmospheric outings but also check out the funky fusion sound of ‘Makulu’ by Deela. This one could go massive if given the right exposure.

Andy Allen

Most of you should know MKL from his 3 Generations Walking guise that surfaced on Joe Claussell’s Spiritual Life a few years ago, and he certainly caused a stir with DJs around the world. Lion1music was then launched and continued pushing the soulful deep house vibes. R2 Records have wisely put together a fine selection of sought after tracks and remixes from MKL’s back catalogue on to cd. There were quite a few I missed, so this has been handy for me. Highlights include the 3 Generations Walking remix of Fat Freddy’s Drop “Hope”and Francois Kevorkian’s dub of “Midnight Bustling”, and the other nine tracks are wonderfully produced house flavours.

Simon Harrison

This formula has been tried on a number of occasions over the years: some albums have produced some classy new interpretations, but, more often than not, remixing jazz classics hasn’t quite come up to scratch. Dopeness Galore have already released the excellent compilation “Timeless Finest Jazz” which gave us a taster from the massive back catalogue of Timeless Records, and now they’ve brought in the remixers. I am glad to say that here are some of the best re-works to date. Domu’s broken beat version of “Nerada” works a treat, as does Alex Attias’ remix of Art Blakey’s Kenji’s Walk, which goes back to his Bel Air Project days. The combination of Mark De Clive-Lowe and Bembe Segue as The Politik was always going to be a winner and I.N.T produce two tracks, one with Rich Medina and the other with Melodee, which will keep the heads happy. I’ll leave you to check out the rest in your own time.

Simon Harrison

The quartet made up of Hajime Yoshizawa, Masato Nakamura, Kiyoshi Ikeda and Nobuaki Fujii are back on top form with eight more future jazz classics. As Soil and Pimps finally received a well overdue European release, it’s great timing to continue the supply of Japanese jazz. We were given a taster of things to come at the end of 2005 with the Especial 12″ that included “Into The Sun” featuring Bembe Segue and the title track featuring then legend Pharoah Sanders. The beautiful vocalist Yukimi Nagano has also been drafted in on “Afloat”. The formula and sound we know and love continues, with loads more Flute, Piano and Saxophone solos over the baddest jazz percussion in town. Over the following months you should be guaranteed to hear the soon to be massive “Ai-No-Tabi”, assuming you support the right club nights and DJs. All in all, you need this.

Simon Harrison