Secretsundaze are back with their first label release in 2023: the follow up to Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange’s 2021’s 'Kreuzberg Kix EP 1'. The team is very much present and correct with artist Wayne Snow once again joining the party on the deep house trip 'Take Your Time'. It comes complete with a stunning remix by Secretsundaze long time fave, NYC based producer and DJ Jenifa Mayanja, and the jazzy, uptempo, instrumental 'Bleached'. More

Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange is a collective that brings together UK jazz funk vibes with the energy of Berlin's electronic DJ music. "Sci-Fi Jazz Directions" epitomises the Zeitgeist of the time, the crucial meeting point of our organic selves with our technology. More

Composer, bassist and producer Horatio Luna is a musician intrinsically interwoven into the fabric of Melbourne’s (and indeed the global) jazz scene. Following his 2020 LP “Boom Boom” (Which won support from the likes of Jamz Supernova, Lefto, Bradley Zero, Earmilk and OkayPlayer) Horatio returns to Jitwam’s The Jazz Diaries imprint, inviting several of his all- time favourite producers to reimagine some of his standout tracks. More

Continuing to fly the flag for worldwide soulful dance-floor sounds, Jitwam’s globe-hopping label The Jazz Diaries unveil their latest signing, Detroit-based veteran producer Brian 'Javonntte' Garrett. Supplying body moving frequencies since the late nineties, Javonntte began playing piano at age 15 and honed his craft on tour with Aretha Franklin. A collaborator of Amp Fiddler and Luke Solomon, he has previously released on labels such as Eglo Records, Lumberjacks In Hell, Traxx Underground, Defected and Waella’s Choice. His debut on The Jazz Diaries see’s Garrett turn in five hazy, funk-drenched, party-moving jams. From the crunchy midi fanfare of the record’s opener “Reggietune”, through to the blissed-out sweeping synths of “Outerbound”, the EP packs a punch, keeping it’s rock solid, groove-laden sensibilities throughout. Javonntte even throws in a jacked up, Detroit-style reinterpretation of Christopher Cross’s classic track “Ride Link The Wind” (the EP’s first single, due for release April 9th). Trust, this one won’t leave your record bag. More

2020 was a huge year for Jitwam?’s ?The Jazz Diaries ?imprint. It saw them showcase a breadth of soulful futuristic styles, releasing incredible material from the likes of ?Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange, Horatio Luna?, Folamour, Kaidi Tatham ?and highlight innovative movements within the South Asian Diaspora with their mind-bending ?chalo ?compilation. Returning in strong form, the globe trotting imprint now announce their latest signing - legendary Chicago based producer ?Anthony Nicholson?. Having released records since 1992 (under a plethora of aliases), Anthony’s discography is one of the most respected and sought after collections in dance music. His collaborators include ?Ron Trent?, ?Peven Everett?, ?Glenn Underground?, ?Mark De-Clive-Lowe, ?his catalogue even boasts a? ?remix for L?arry Heard. Once again taking on his given name, the ?‘?DIRTYDISCOJAZZFUNK EP’ ?sees Anthony channeling his ?undeniable talent for creating mind expanding, groove driven house music, alongside some truly impressive musicianship. Anthony explains: “?I try to create this music with the intentions of inspiring a solo-ist to deliver a honest performance when they’re playing on the track. The arrangement sets the tone. In the case of this track, it sounds relentlessly funky. ?Throughout the 12”, high energy, tape-saturated drums meet fusion licks and swirling Rhodes/Wurlitzer pianos, as synth stabs and a rock solid rhythm section steadily work the compositions in a heady dancefloor-moving frenzy. More

Globetrotting psychedelic soul savant Jitwam teams up with French producer extraordinaire Folamour, presenting the uplifting and soul soaked “Sun After Rain” on his The Jazz Diaries label. Following his Detroit Swindle collaboration “Coffee In The Morning” and his “Back To My Place” outing on Darker Than Wax (which saw him gain support from the likes of Benji B, OkayPlayer & more) “Sun After Rain” is a keys-driven dance floor groover, complete with triumphant brass stabs and a rock solid rhythm section. Delivering a promise of the brighter tomorrow that the world is currently yearning for. On the flip, Jitwam teams up with Mike Bloom for the sultry “Body Do” - reverb soaked keys and layered vocals create a smoky, heady atmosphere as intergalactic synth lines pierce the haze. Legendary broken beat virtuoso Kaidi Tatham then steps to the plate, giving the title track a stripped down, atmospheric, latin-twinged re-rub - flexing his unbeatable abilities and showcasing why he’s still one of the UK’s finest musical exports. TRACK LISTING: A1. Sun After Rain feat. Folamour, A2. Body Do feat. Mike Bloom, B1. Sun After Rain (Kaidi Tatham After The Sun Remix) More

chalo is a nascent interdisciplinary creative community and collaborative platform featuring the work of ethnically South Asian artists. With a long term aim to strengthen cross-cultural bonds by showcasing the vast breadth of talent within the community, the first volume features artists with heritage in Pakistan, India and Kashmir. Net proceeds from the compilation are going towards the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) and Zindagi Trust. The first volume of chalo comprises of Pakistani and Indian artists across classical composers and underground hip-hop, visual artists and videographers, journalists and illustrators. It is a multi-tiered release featuring a video, podcast, print series and, most importantly, a music compilation. Featuring an all-star cast of artists like that range from the cerebral (V.S Narasimhan), to editations on immigrant culture (Riz Ahmed), to post-modern pop (Kavya), to Kashmiri hip-hop (Ahmer), floating left-field electronica (Nabihah Iqbal) to meditative jazz (Sarathy Korwar) to tunes that will leave you sweating on the dance floor (MadstarBase), chalo vol. 1 showcases the diversity and musical range of South Asian artists. It dispels the notion that an often overlooked culture can be painted by one brush, a single narrative. The compilation will be accompanied by a video piece that gives insight to the plight of artists of colour whilst also highlighting the unique cultural melting pot of influences. This ethos will be extended to an eight-episode podcast where discussions between artists from various parts of India and Pakistan will meditate on discussions of caste, class, politics, race and, amongst it all, the meaning of art. This will be released after the compilation's launch on November 6th, with the album artwork by Shweta Sharma. The net proceeds from the chalo project will be split between the Human Rights Law Network and Zindagi Trust which will contribute to the ongoing initiatives they are working on, including Rights to Food, Dalit Rights, Educational Reform, Women's Justice and Empowerment. "chalo stems from recognising that there's a gap in the media we consume. Despite global political, industrial and technological significance, culturally, South Asia's status is hidden in the margins. With a long term to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations while also elevating and showcasing peoples respective talents, ??? chalo aims to build, however we can, between people" TRACK LISTING A1. Kumar Shome & The Punkawallahs - Nymphatic A2. Aroop Roy - Second Impressions A3. NATE08 - Hold Up A4. UJJY - Mdnght Prtndrs A5. KAVYA - Underscore A6. Talal Qureshi feat. Natasha Noorani - Constant Summer B1. Ahadadream - Tabla GQOM B2. Sid Vashi - Transmission (radio edit) B3. Nabihah Iqbal - Is This Where It Ends B4. Mughal-E-Funk - Akbar B5. Jaubi - Time: The Donut of the Heart (J Dilla Cover) B6. Sulk Station - Dheere B7. V.S Narasimhan - Mokshamu (Heavenly Reach) More

Following the release of his sophomore album Honeycomb on Tartlet Records, Jitwam returns to his spiritual home The Jazz Diaries with a new EP and a new sound to shepherd us into 2020. Enchanté sees Jitwam in a new light, sounding more realised and definitive than ever, effortlessly blending genres into dancefloor music for all walks of life. While presenting a humble two tracks plus an extended mix of Something to Say by Anthony Nicholson, Enchanté has a presence that feels bigger than the sum of its parts. It is a culmination of sounds explored, developed and fine-tuned, through EPs, albums and touring over the last few years. Jazz-funk has always been at the heart of Jitwam’s music, and with Enchanté we see it rise to the fore, ushering in a new sound for not only the artist but his label The Jazz Diaries. More

The Jazz Diaries is proud to announce NYC’s favorite underground papi Toribio will be releasing his sophomore EP June 14th 2019. Hot of-the-heels of his Gator Boots 12” for Soul Clap, which received hands in the air support from Seth Troxler, Adam Port, and Soul Clap, Toribio makes you feel at home in the club with his expressive new EP - Capicua! Growing up playing Dominican percussion instruments from an early age, and being a staple DJ in the NYC circuit for the last 7+ years playing with a who’s who of DJs (Danny Krivit, Rick Wilhite, Louie Vega etc), Toribio expands the palette of what dance music is, fusing his Dominican roots, afro-cuban latin riddims and 90s hip-hop to create a cultural melting pot that signals a change in the guard for NYC House Music. More

Repress!

A techno-nature synthesis for an East-West confrontation / a musical travelogue from a Dutch musician searching for inspiration in the East in the early 80s. More

"Into The Abyss", the new album by Joel Holmes (former band leader of Carl Craig's synthesizer ensemble and member of Grammy-nominated cult band Roy Hargrove) is a perfect capturing of Berlin's new jazz and electronic scene. More

Balmat co-founders Philip Sherburne and Albert Salinas have been fans of Shy Layers’ lilting, Balearic pop for years, so when Shy Layers’ JD Walsh asked us to listen to a set of demos he was working up with fellow Atlanta multi-instrumentalist Jeff Crompton, we jumped at the chance. And once we heard their work in progress, the decision was almost immediate: We have to release this.

Together, Walsh and Crompton are Anagrams, and their debut album together, Blue Voices, might initially seem like a departure from Balmat’s habitually electronic terrain. It’s not ambient music, but it’s also not not ambient music, at least to listeners in the right frame of mind. The two musicians, who met when Walsh moved from Brooklyn to Atlanta in 2016 and began collaborating a few years later, see the music in similarly ambiguous terms. “I like it because it’s not jazz,” jokes Crompton, a veteran and credentialed jazz player. “And JD likes it because it’s jazz.”

Crompton is a musician (and former high-school band teacher) with deep roots in Georgia’s improvised and experimental music scenes; his credits include shows with Eugene Chadbourne, a guest appearance with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and a collaboration with Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel’s 12-hour drone performance at Knoxville’s Big Ears. On Blue Voices he plays alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, electric piano, and organ. Walsh has been releasing music as Shy Layers since 2015, when he started self-releasing on Bandcamp; the following year, Germany’s Growing Bin packaged his first two EPs as a self-titled album, and in 2018, Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space label put out Shy Layers’ sophomore album, Midnight Marker. Where those records channeled Walsh’s playful harmonic instincts into wistful songwriting with tropical overtones, on Blue Voices he lets his experimental tendencies take the lead. Playing acoustic and electric guitars, electric lap steel, bass, Moog Matriarch, modular synth, and programmed drums, he concentrates his energies on richly textural layers and abstract assemblages of tone color.

Across the album’s 11 tracks, there are faint echoes of familiar touchstones: the atmospheric twang of Daniel Lanois’ pedal steel on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks; the mercurial modal runs of Ethio- jazz; the late-summer calm of Fuubutsushi; the versatility of players and composers like Patrick Shiroishi and Sam Gendel, who are asking similar questions about where jazz ends and some other, nameless territory begins. Mostly, though, what Blue Voices captures is the quixotic sound of two restless musical imaginations making it up as they go along, two voices discovering a shared language in a hitherto unexplored shade of blue. More

2023 Repress!

In 1997 and 1998, the late great Japanese composer, producer, and DJ Susumu Yokota released two of the most eclectic albums of his decades-long career, Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace. Recorded under his Stevia alias for Tokyo Techno pioneer DJ Miku’s Newstage Records/NS-COM, they were Yokota-san’s homage to the foundational days of club music in Japan.

This year, Glossy Mistakes are proud to present the first official vinyl editions of Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace, originally released on CD during the golden days of the format. Packaged in reimagined cover artwork created by the celebrated Japanese visual artist Masaho Anotani, these two albums perfectly capture the diversity at the heart of Yokota-san’s oeuvre. Across Greenpeace sees Yokota-san conjuring up a heady concoction of dusty loops, sampledelic breaks, kraut-rock and psychedelic downbeat. A remarkable listening experience based on the inspired era of a genius.

When Yokota-san wrote and produced the music on Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace in 1997, he was reflecting on the broader culture that surrounded dance music in Japan in the early to mid-nineties. It was an era when the psychedelic culture of late sixties America, the afterglow of UK acid house/rave, the new age movement and cyberpunk dovetailed together. Within DJ Miku and Yokota-san’s social circles, the thinking of Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs electrified the air.

By 1996, the moment, brilliant and blinding as it was, was over. “We all felt that the rave scene fizzled out,” DJ Miku says. As he puts it, there was a collective feeling around him that it had all become too much. From the calm that followed, DJ Miku, Yokota-san and their open-eared peers made the decision to switch tracks and start from scratch. DJ Miku believes that with his Stevia releases, Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace, Yokota-san wanted to express the sweet and sour nature of the passing of those wild early days and his wish for true peace. “At the time, we saw eye-to-eye, with an implicit understanding of each other,” he explains. “Even now, twenty-five years later, I am confident it was like that.” More

Secretsundaze are back with their first label release in 2023: the follow up to Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange’s 2021’s 'Kreuzberg Kix EP 1'. The team is very much present and correct with artist Wayne Snow once again joining the party on the deep house trip 'Take Your Time'. It comes complete with a stunning remix by Secretsundaze long time fave, NYC based producer and DJ Jenifa Mayanja, and the jazzy, uptempo, instrumental 'Bleached'. More

CoOp Presents is incredibly proud to present an all-new compilation album put together by Allysha Joy. This 14-track LP gives us a solid glimpse into the current wave of Antipodean bruk / broken beat artists. Allysha explains "the connection began with a guest mix for CoOp Presents Worldwide FM radio show. I was asked to guest on the show, so pulled together some heavy unreleased and unmastered "Australian" broken sounds. I immediately called Horatio, Close Counters and Setwun, some of my nearest and dearest inspirations and collaborators to get them in the mix! Within 24 hours I had a brand new beat from Setwun called 'H.B.Y', I ran up some vocals on a Close Counters track and landed a wild jazz-bruk collaboration called 'Fly' from Horatio Luna and Nikodimos! We all felt really blessed to be linking in with some of the innovators of the sound we love! Also in the mix, I played a track by Lanu a.k.a Lance Ferguson, one of "Australia's" funkiest songwriters and producers. Mike Gurrieri and Chris Gill over at Northside Records had already been scheming to set Lance and I up on a music date for weeks, which turned into writing 'Rewind' . Lanu, along with Ennio Styles, have been integral in the broken beat sound down here from the early 2000s and they connected Jonny Faith in to bring 'Southern Stepper'. After linking in over the music and working on some collaborations, Alex Phountzi and IG Culture asked me to put together this compilation. The first person that came to mind was Sampology. A wild ride of shifting harmony and incredible vocals, Sam delivered 'Sunny', featuring Maia. Also of Middle Name Dance Band acclaim and a beaming light of creative energy, Kuzko created 'Immunity' for the comp — their debut solo release! Also up in Meanjin, Special Feelings and Squidgenini were making their own style of jazzy house music and we absolutely knew that they would kill it on the broken beat tip. They sent through 'On Heat' and 'Prophecy' respectively, and inspired me to write and produce 'Listen'. A track about the struggle to be heard as female and non-binary artists. A hard-hitter mixed by co-collaborator Yelderbert of our new duo project, Totek. As my brother and the one that first introduced me to Agent K, I knew we had to get Ziggy Zeitgeist up in the mix! He immediately sent over a bunch of tunes, and from alongside all of the 30/70 Collective demo drum loops and fresh Z.F.E.X sounds, we selected 'Bruk Samba' featuring Cody Curry, the CC Dance Orchestra. I had managed to pull together a bunch of tunes for the compilation and after a studio session one afternoon I was walking down Sydney Road and bumped into Silent Jay, Alien and A.KID a.k.a. ACID SLOP at their new spot, the Mandarin Dreams HQ. We were just chatting and above Jay's head I spotted the New Sector Movements record, 'Download This'! To see that they'd just been spinning this record felt so serendipitous, so I had to ask them to be on it! Acid Slop sent me through a tune literally the next day, called 'Everything Falls Apart' and within the week we got 'Walk Away', from Lori and Silent Jay. It felt complete. The way that this music just effortlessly and lyrically fell together, is a testament to the broken beat undercurrent that runs within the jazz and dance music scene down-under. 'They're Energised' connects a scene of deeply talented and inspired musicians, collectively shaping the new wave of uniquely "Australian" bruk and broken beat music!" More