There are certain occasions when you can truly feel the stars align. One of these is when the interstellar voyager of cosmic soul Jimi Tenor finally lands his spaceship at full force on a Timmion recording. In 2024, he will be serving us two spaced out album sessions recorded together with Cold Diamond & Mink. Jimi is no stranger in these space ways as he has operated behind the Timmion scenes for years, furnishing several of the label's artists with his flute and reeds artistry. The first album out is titled "Is There Love In Outer Space?", which begs the question with the force of five extended tracks that are guaranteed to blow your mind to the stratosphere. The pieces are loaded with whooshing and glistening synth noises and span from lofi space funk to cinematic soundscapes. The sweetly floating title track is like some of those galactic ballads that rare soul collectors are spending their pensions on. At the other side of the spectrum, album closer `What Are You Doing?' sounds like Sun Ra sat down at a JBs session, and is straight up meant to get that booty moving. Combined with the raw soul prowess of CD&M, Jimi is able to refine new shades from his already impressive repertoire of talent. Even if you are a friend of his previous work you might not have heard him get down quite like this.

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After her debut Timmion single "Don't Believe You Like That", Emilia Sisco is back in the fold with a double sider of the highest order. Emilia seems to feel right at home with the material that she cooks up with Cold Diamond & Mink, filling both songs to the brim with soul.

Despite its title, "Trouble" strolls along with a delicately sweet mid-tempo groove and a nicely abundant arrangement, each of Emilia's lyrical calls getting a response from the background harmonizers and the band steady tightening up while the song builds towards its conclusion. The B-side slows things down to a lush southern soul drawl, coming off like a classy forgotten Hi session.

Both of these tracks present a singer who has paid her dues by studying the craft and polishing it for years in front of live audiences. Now it's time for Emilia to push her voice out there on the wings of her own original songs, a feature that we've come to expect from the Timmion stable.

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This next chapter of Timmion's talent scouting in the US will land home with the Purple Heart of Soul, and turn even the coldest of us to the love side. No prisoners taken. It's time for Jonny Benavidez to lay his falsetto over the ever smooth backing of Cold Diamond & Mink. With the sweet as candy mid-pacer "Tell Me That You Love Me" he should go the whole mile. Those, who have an insatiable thirst for crossover soul sounds by groups such as The Commands and TSU Toronadoes, should snatch up this piece of wax without haste. Texas made and California raised, Jonny has polished his teeth for years in doo wop groups and sung backing harmonies for big names such as Archie Bell and Eugene Pitt from The Jive Five. Currently residing in Austin, Texas he's forming and coating even more sweet tracks for Timmion. It might not break the charts, but for some with the proper ear for beauty, this will undoubtedly be the new soul record of the year. Have a listen, if you are one of those privileged people. More

The second single from the Nicole Willis album Happiness in Every Style opens up the promised spectrum of joy into new ecstatic states. One In A Million is an unapologetic love song, which while connecting to this most traditional mode in soul music, also makes it correct for the dancefloor. Connoisseur terms such as 'crossover' or 'modern soul' might prove to be accurate here, but a membership in the soul scene is not mandatory to get down.The main thing is that this up-tempo horn-driven groover, propelled by The Soul Investigators (as the usual suspects), should make things move inside, tickling nerves in scenesters as well as the layman, as their breakthrough hit If This Ain't Love did back in the day.The world and the music business is different for Nicole Willis and the boys from up north. Nevertheless, One In A Million might be the underground hit that nobody saw coming. Or it just as well might not, but this is no excuse for not making quality music More

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Carlton Jumel Smith is back on Timmion Records, doing what he does best: grooving, testifying and romancing his way into your heart. His last album for the label 1634 Lexington Ave. left many contemporary soul fans in awe – some in tears of joy – and they will be pleased to know that he has something new cooking in 2022. The first release from an upcoming trilogy of singles, "Devoted To You" packs everything you could want from a mid-tempo jam. A steady tambourine beat rides the mellow Cold Diamond & Mink groove, leaving Carlton all the pockets he needs to fill with his ever-funky but delicate delivery. Keep tuned this year for a bunch of new soulful tracks from Carlton and Cold Diamond & Mink. They will keep you warm and cozy through any kind of weather! More

There is never any doubt that soul is in the house, when you hear the poetic guitar and organ licks from Cold Diamond & Mink starting to twirl together, and out of nowhere Carlton Jumel Smith steps effortlessly inside the groove. "Heaven In My Arms" is the second in line of Carlton's new trio of singles on Timmion, and what a treat it is: deep as Mississippi mud, light as a feather. This time our trans-Atlantic tag team delivers a melodic beat ballad of the highest order, which should sweep fans of lowrider soul off their wheels. Spanish Harlem-bred Carlton has been steadily churning out gems since meeting the Timmion folks some years back and shows no signs of stopping yet. This is a love song with plenty of heart to give everybody. Just take it all in, and enjoy the instrumental on the flipside while you're at it. More

The opening rimshot drums of "Loveliness Of You" by Carlton Jumel Smith and Cold Diamond & Mink have sunday soul written all over them. This easy breezy groover closes Calton's 2022 singles trilogy with a style that echoes classic Hi productions for Al Green from the early 1970's. It's clear that on Timmion Records, Carlton has found a home far away from home. Carlton's soulful demeanor is hard not to like, and if there is any truth to what he's singing here, some even seem to fall in love with it. The recipe is not complicated here, and there is no reason to keep it a secret: just a steady groove by a tight rhythm section, horns that lift the beat off the ground and a voice that wraps itself around your heart. And sometimes that's all you need. More

Repress of the funky instrumental 45 by The Soul Investigators featuring Jimi Tenor! For those into sounds from the deep dungeons of the soul jazz underground, the 2nd quarter of 2015 looks promising. Out of its mist come The Soul Investigators in a slick red convertible, featuring a mean flautist riding shotgun, a position we Finns like to call the seat for those in fear. The velvet smooth winds emanate from none other than Jimi Tenor, a person some might even describe as a renaissance man. The sufficiently psychedelic jazzier exercise "Vulture's Prayer" should get your mind wondering into a turn of the 70's London, featuring a hippie gone bad, smacked out in furs in a hedonistic basement bacchanal, just before discovering himself at the opening desert scene of the "Holy Mountain". Flipping the disc over to "Bad Vibrations" we find ourself in a more funkier urban setting, possibly at a Yusuf Lateef inspired bar session in Chicago's South Side. Don't know, why they call them bad, because they sound so good. Better get yourself a slice and why not even a second helping. More

Now and then you might find yourself painted in a corner. It is usually the case that you can only blame yourself for ending up there. The painter of shapes and words, Nicole Willis has painted herself for the past ten years into the periphery of Helsinki, Finland, only to sing her soul out. Now she's back at grinding her vocal axe with The Soul Investigators. Approaching the release of their third joint album in late 2015, it's time to test the waters with Paint Me in a Corner b/w Where Are You Now. Neither of the tracks carries much of a humour element. The first one points its pounding existential finger towards us all, urging us to break the chains of normality, while the beautiful melancholia of the second track rocks the listener in a mid-tempo groove paradise. These two tracks might be just the thing to kick you in the chest with enough soul in order to get out of the house. Maybe even dance by yourself in a desolate corner of the bar. More

An internet image search of the Welsh countryside looks exactly like you might have pictured it. The grassy knolls, grass-topped rooftops, horses and lambs on the green pasture, the winding roads; beauty that manages to dodge the cliché by a hundred miles. When it comes to the instrumentals of Jeb Loy Nichols' album "Jeb Loy", recorded far away from his Wales home in a Finnish basement studio, modern pastoral soul might as well be the appropriate term. Void of Jeb's raspy vocals, but still featuring his acoustic guitar, an air of serenity emerges from the tracks. The crow has flown away into the grey clouds leaving the misty airwaves for the drums and bass, guitars, organ and horns, the familiar tools of Cold Diamond & Mink. And these fellows know how to build an ambience, just have a listen to the instrumental version of "Living It Up". "Jeb Loy" might be the independent soul album of the year. But as all of the single releases from it are vocal tracks, this release is your only chance to cop these instrumentals. You'll find that they have stories of their own to tell. Some pretty, others joyful and all inspiring. More