Horizon is the first official album by the italo-moroccan producer Issam Dahmani, also known with the alias NNatn. Issam's style flows between deep-house, balearic and afro influences, the perfect blend for a sunset aperitivo on the italian coast. More

AZZURRO is the soundtrack of a summer vacation in Italy of the Hungarian dj/producer duo "Pleasure Voyage". The label Quattro Bambole continues on his Adriatic Funk series blessing a new summer with the rightest vibes. Available on vinyl and on all digital stores.
The concept of the record was like a week-long vacation in Italy. It starts with jazzy, slower sessions and progresses to an italo-jazzy-house gem, Summer Voyage. Passionate vocals with smooth Rhodes solo and licks on this track. Following some clubby tunes Electromarea and Dolphine Dance as a nightlife hangout, and a remix by the label founder Francesco FIsotti with cool vocals follows.
Finally, with the last tune, you can feel the bittersweet emotions when you are on your way to the airport to leave this magical country, but you have some souvenirs on your skin that they call “Ambraskin” (tanned skin) and the visual memories of the crystal clear sea they often call Mare Azzurro.

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Gelateria Fisotti (a real gelato spot from Otranto, Apulia IT) is back with the 2nd volume of Gelato Italiano series, a various artists that presents itself as a summer soundtrack for the coolest gelaterias of the riviera. More

Aqua Viva is the second album by Francesco Fisotti, who returns to tell the exotic and mystical atmospheres of Puglia (Apulia), with a deep and italo house sound, jazzy and fonky, in which synths and drum machines are combined with arrangements by musicians, enriched by rap and sung. Incl. featuring of Andrea Rossetti, Roberto Chiga, Maurizio Tomaselli, Michela Giannini, Karlino Princip, Neos, Done, Filippo Bubbico, Manu Funk, Max Ingrosso, Emiliano Roca, Marco Chiriatti, Giorgia Santoro, Alyona Tsarbell. More

Gelato Italiano vol.1 is a Various Artists EP created as if it was a playlist for a gelato shop, with different sounds inside, like various flavors of gelato. The idea comes from Francesco Fisotti, owner of Gelateria Fisotti, based in Otranto. The summer there is hot and gelato should be eaten with the right vibes, definitely Italo-Disco, Jungle, House, Hip Hop, Broken Beat.
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Based on Francesco Fisotti's real life experience, Lido Sirena wants to be a sound details of late 80s summer on Salento coast. The new Apulian sound, also called "Adriatic Funk", is a perfect mix between floating disco strings and solid weighty kick drums.

A1. La Tartana
A2. Fuecu Brucia
A3. Fine Giugno
B1. Rustico Boogie
B2. Aria
B3. Night Vodka More

Repress!

The space grapes strike back with a sizzling hot 7" from Jambonne. More

The first-ever reissue of this in-demand 94 jungle scorcher from DJ Fokus.

Having broken out with two 12”s on Monroe Production’s Blueprint Records, DJ Fokus quickly followed up at the Monroe Studios, under the watchful eye of legendary engineer Pete Parsons (Voyager), with two self-funded 12”s on his Suicide imprint before putting pen to paper with Lucky Spin Recordings. Now regularly demanding three figure sums both releases have achieved cult status amongst jungliests both young and old.

Available for the first time since its initial 1994 pressing, this black wax reissue of the first Suicide release was mastered from the original DAT sourced from Pete's personal archive (which includes the name of the previously presumed untitled b-side) and the lacquer cut by Beau Thomas (Babylon Timewarp/Intense). Expect the second release Watch Out/Media soon...

Fundamental Frequencies is a back room record label (headed by Doug Shipton of archival label Finders Keepers Records), dedicated to unearthing lesser-spotted, sought-after and unreleased choice cuts of jungle, acid, ambient, techno, hardcore, breakbeat (and the galaxy of genres scattered in-between) that helped shape and in some cases bridge the scenes. More

Paul Murphy: Jazz Room Records. "The first time I heard this I said "I gotta sign it!" as not only was it featured in one of the maddest and most memorable scenes on one of my favorite TV Shows "Severance" from Apple TV, but it's also on one of my favourite albums anyway, "Nation Time" by Joe McPhee." Takumi Moriya's version Is as funky as it gets and is truly way up there and meeting the high as a kitemark standards of "Defiant Jazz" (What a Niche Genre to be in!) This is going to cause some serious Defiant Jazz Shake on a dancefloor near you! Break out the Maraccas!" A limited vinyl 45 release and it's release number 30 on Jazz Room Records so ultra special. More

DELUXE HARD-CARDBOARD SLEEVE COVER + 180g VINYL + OBI

A rare album, “Fisher” was originally released on the Nentu label in 1976.

Think Grant Green meets Eddie Hazel.



This LP has it all: gorgeous Soul Jazz, wahed-out fuzz Rock, dirty, head-nodding Funk Rhythms.

It's a monster psychedelic soul-funk instrumental album. This is less jazzy than the “Third Cup” and “The Next One Hundred Years”, released by Chicago’s Cadet label and more cosmic psych funk across both sides and gets super exploratory and trippy.

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Two longstanding electronic legends, Steve Bug reunites with frequent collaborator Cle for the three-track ‘It Just Happened EP’ on Nu Groove. The German tastemaker and Poker Flat label boss has helped define a plethora of electronic sub genres through his modern releases and expansive DJ sets. From early LPs ‘Volksworld’ and ‘Da Minimal Funk’, to later works ‘Traffic Signs’ and ‘Never Ending Winding Roads’, Bug’s futuristic vision is apparent throughout his experimental releases. Joined once again by Cle, a fellow veteran of the German rave scene, the pair return to the cult NYC label with three striking originals following previous release ‘Let It Go / Suitcase In A Box’. The EP’s lead, ‘It Just Happened’ features breathy synths and acidic loops that harken back to an era of underground house, immediately nostalgic yet forward thinking in its technique. ‘Crew Thing’ and ‘House Music Transcends’ follow suit, both teeming with energy as the two producers show off their unique creative process through sound. More

A collection of unreleased tracks from the early 90's Jumpin' & Pumpin' era, when FSOL hid behind various guises More

The A Side of course is just one of the biggest tunes from the grunge era and is given a Jazzy Funky Groovy version by Blue Mode of Nirvana's Biggest Hit. It turns out that they were influenced by everything from the Gap Band to Louie Louie and a fair smattering of 80's indie and this production by Chip Wickham mixes together a Swinging '60's Blue Note Vibe with the Acid Jazz sound and brings it bang up to date with the Nu-Jazz Experience. First time on 45 and is already a DJ favourite after being included in the Paul Murphy set "Jazz Room" on BBE Records. Side 2 is a Boogaloo Latin Jazz version (produced by Paul Murphy Live in the studio in Budapest when he was living there) of the Lonnie Smith track "Hola Muneca" beloved of the Acid Jazz era DJ's and previously released on a now impossible to find 7 inch single that goes for crazy prices. More

On June 29th 20203, Jeremiah Chiu walked into the Vintage Synthesizer Museum (VSM) in Highland Park, Los Angeles, with no plan more specific than "let's fire this stuff up and see what happens." Exploring the VSM's vast collection of classic, rare and staple synthesizers, he would sequence, trigger, and layer the machines together with help from VSM founder/curator Lance Hill.

The resulting album - In Electric Time - was recorded in just two days, and edited to completion in the two days following. It was captured fully analog by engineer Ben Lumsdaine, who contributes performances on a few tracks himself. Cooper Crain (of Bitchin Bajas) makes an appearance as well; but ultimately the collection is an intuitive expression of organic electronic conceptualized and created in-context by Chiu alone, as he calls on a lifetime of work in sound synthesis to pain a fulgent, refreshingly undercut sequence of cinematic sketches and in-process themes. In some ways, In Electric Time reflects the directness of Raymond Scott's electronic studio recordings - with sharp cuts and room chatter - and, in others, it conjures the in-the moment- magic of Harmonia.

Tracklist
1.1ElectroComp 101
1.2Seawater Swell
1.3For Voices
1.4Rococco Rondo
1.5A Cloud Song
1.6Rhythm Bell
1.7Brush with Thin Air
1.8Rhythm Serge
1.9Static Stone Railway
1.10Transparent Spheres
1.11Echo Arp Hold
1.12In Electric Time More

The fourth installment of the 'Tracks From The Alley' series continues to explore the oblique edges of the jackin zone, dragging recognizable primitive elements of dance music through narcotic madness; a possible soundtrack for sleepless nights at the skate park.

Involved in this 4 tracker mini-compilation are the Greek dj/producer DimDj, the Berlin-based Italian producer and part of Sons Of Traders, TANS, the Portugal-based Brazilian Unrealistic Expectations label owner Nothing Was There, and the ALLEY VERSION's brothers FLML.

Limited to 200 copies. More

A Jazz Dance Favourite that Jazz Room Records Head Honcho Paul Murphy was hepped to by Brownswood and 6Music Jazz Supremo Gilles Peterson at the 20th Birthday Bash of London's most Underground of Clubs: Shiftless Shuffle. Murphy: "I'd quite forgotten all about it, but when I saw the reaction on the dancefloor it was "Mental Note Time, get on the case for a full investigation and let's see some Vinyl re-issue action!" The head of the original Danish Label, Pick Up Records, later reminded Paul that he was selling the originals in his original Jazz Record Shop "Fusion Records" when the original was released and that he, Peter Littauer, had actually delivered them personally on a trip to London. Synergy in action! The music is a mixture of 100mph Latin Jazz (Girl With Three Faces/747 To Rio/From Dusk Towards Dawn) and Funky Rhodes driven workouts (Travelling/Circles In The Air), plus the vocal pyrotechnics of Hawaiian singer Lei Aloha Moe who guested on two of the tracks. More

Every now and again, a record carves itself an indelible place in the history of a place, a scene or a genre, all under its own steam – without a big budget, without a press campaign, without mainstream radio, just by hitting all the right notes at the right moment. Maybe you had to have been there to really feel it – locked into the pirate stations, a regular at the right clubs, or leaning on the counter in the right records shops on a Saturday afternoon – but if you were, there are some tunes that will always vibrate with the underground cultural energy of their time. Bô'vel's 1996 Manchester streetsoul anthem 'Check 4 U' is one of those tunes. The kind of song that makes the over-used phrase 'underground classic' mean something again, it effortlessly distills the sounds of its era into one of the most undeniable, genre-spanning cuts of the mid-1990s. The song resonates with the regional flavours of UK sound-system culture: the sweet club sound of Manchester's vibrant streetsoul scene, the dubwise hip-hop throb of the Bristol movement, and the bass-lore of the reggae sound systems whose wisdom stretched from Leeds to South London and beyond. Built around a humid kick drum and a bin-busting bass pulse arranged in head-nodding syncopation, the song is blessed with an instantly memorable harmonised hook, and perfectly set off by Bô'vel's crystalline vocals. Upful, stepping and tinged with melancholy, it remains one of the most well-loved and highly sought-after UK streetsoul sides. The three mixes of 'Check 4 U' appeared as the a-side of a blank-label five-track 12". It was Bô'vel's second release, after a soulful five-track EP issued in 1995 on her own Bô'vel Records had been a surprise success. Produced by Kev Waddington, that initial record had come about almost by accident after a chance encounter in Manchester's HQ Studios, as Bô'vel recalls today: 'We were making these five tracks because we were having bit of an argument with radio not being able to play what they wanted, really, only what the record labels wanted… they never had anybody coming through properly, because everything was pretty much underground. We were making records, like really pop stuff, to take the piss… So in the studio one day, this guy came in – all I know is that his was name was Nigel. And he came in and said, I want to put that five-track EP out with you. We just don't know who the hell he was to this day, really. And he said, you've got to do it 50/50, it's going to be £1000. So I said okay – I just trusted him. I gave him 500 quid. He gave me 1000 records. He just dropped them at the studio. I picked them up and then I went into Manchester city centre and gave it to a couple of DJs on underground radio.' Pirate radio loved it. With play on stalwart Manchester pirates like Buzz FM and Soul Nation, the EP immediately blew up. Bô'vel took the record into Fat City Records, Manchester's premier outlet and distributor for soul, hip-hop and dance, who took a batch, quickly sold out and took several hundred more copies; it eventually transpired that a large quantity were selling to Japan, where the combination of soul smarts and classy production had been caught by discerning ears. Elsewhere, friends distributed the record by hand in London and Birmingham, working them through UK's then burgeoning network of independent dance music shops. The warm reception the record received encouraged Bo'vel to return to the studio for sessions that would become 'Check 4 U'. The EP had been issued under a Bô'vel Records imprint, but she had sold it to Fat City without disclosing that she was the artist – 'I said, "There's this singer, she's great, she's done this cheesy stuff, try it, it's a bit Kylie Minogue". He said "oh, give us 300", and then he had some more.' For the next release, she decided to keep things completely minimal. 'The next one, I said, right, let's just put it out as a white label, and if people like it they like it, they don't have to see who we are or anything.' Though punitive legislation and overexposure had tamed rave culture, and the inflated status of superstar DJs had pushed once underground scenes fully into the mainstream, dance music culture in mid-1990s Britain still retained a certain feral energy. There was still a groundswell of vital local scenes and rapidly changing musical styles, and – combined with local record shops – clubs and pirate radio were still the chief arbiters of influence. 'In the 90s, pirate radio just played the best music. I mean, you couldn't really get music like that anywhere. The same as you couldn't get music like that [being played] in the Reno, which was very different,' remembers Bô'vel, referring to the legendary Moss Side soul club, an underground institution from 1962 until its closure in 1986. 'That's where music really started for me, going to clubs like the Reno at the age 15, 16, 17, and going to places like the Nile [upstairs from the Reno], which was all reggae, you know – that's really where the beats came for me.' The production on the new record would reflect these influences more than the EP had been able too. 'I liked a big bassline,' the singer reflects. 'There's a big bassline there on the five-track EP, 'I Can't Get By', which is a really, really good song, but they just could not get the bass – I was so gutted when that came back…if they'd have shown us the master we'd have said no.' These problems were to be avoided on 'Check 4 U' by the involvement of producer Uriah Gale. 'We already had the tune, and Uriah came on board, and I said, it's just not soulful enough. I was working with Kev Waddington, and he said "I just can't do it." So when Uriah came along, the bass was there, but he tidied it all up and made it really cool, and he was tremendous on the harmony,' she recalls. 'Out of all the mixes, his was the best. He was incredible to work with, and also incredibly talented. With alternate mixes of 'Life Changes You' from the 1995 EP as the b-side, 'Check 4 U' was issued with blank blue labels and sent out with a DJ one-sheet describing Bô'vel as 'Manchester's favourite soul Diva'. 2000 copies were pressed, and the record was distributed by Jetstar. It quickly became another pirate radio hit. 'Soul Nation and Buzz FM did support me from the very start [along with] every single DJ on Manchester radio,' she recalls, 'They're my biggest fans, the DJs here, I've got to big them up!' Manchester's support was mirrored by pirates around the UK. 'We had the support of radios across the country – I just could not believe it. So we went on a tour… We would go to the pirate stations, do an interview, then do a gig – that's how the gigging came about… gigging in Birmingham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, London – I've got so much respect for the pirate radios down there. They were brilliant… We used to take all my stuff straight to London,' she remembers. 'Each radio was doing pretty much the same thing, in their own style, with their own beats. Like, when I went down to Bristol, I showed them the EP and 'I Check 4 U' and they said, hey girl, you've got the Bristol beat!' But her core audience was at home in Manchester. 'London did support me a lot, but not like my home town – they loved me as I love them… Manchester supported me through and through, to this very day,' she remembers. Performing in mid-1990s Manchester was not always straightforward, though: 'In Manchester, it was kind of hard to do gigs, because there was a bit of gang warfare. So, you know, that was a problem. You'd be doing a gig and they'd all be there in their [bulletproof] vests, you know, Cheetham Hill and Moss Side, and it was a bit of a nightmare. And because I was more Manchester side, even though I went to school in Cheetham Hill, I was with a guy from Moss Side. So it was pretty hard gigging in Manchester, I had a bit of a hard time.' Nevertheless, 'my gigs were packed to the rafters…I wasn't scared because I knew I had protection. The gigs were fantastic, here in Manchester and everywhere, and I'm glad and very grateful to be able to say that.' A further single followed – the garage-flavoured 'Earthling', made with producer Ben Stansfield – but this would be her final release. 'My life changed,' she remembers. 'I had a split… I was just bringing my daughter up. I used to live in the countryside, and I was having a bit of a different life… I just spent a lot of time writing when I split up – I couldn't sing, it was like my voice wouldn't work. I was just thinking all the time, and not speaking. So I was just speaking through my music… I just became a writer, and I was more looking for other people to sing the [songs], you know? Because there's a lot of talent here in Manchester.' However, she retained access to a studio, and over time she began to record again, working with various producers and amassing a large amount of material. It is this unreleased material that we collect on Life Changes – nine unheard Bô'vel songs from the period 1997-2008(dates?), selected from her own archive. Until now, none of this unreleased work has been heard. Not an artist to be constrained by genre, the music showcases Bô'vel's exploration of a wide range of styles, from the dubbed-out downtempo of 'My Man' or 'I Wanna Be Free' to the updated streetsoul of 'Let Down And Liar', via the breakbeat hype of 'Do It Your Way' and the straight-ahead reggae vibe of 'Daydreamer'. This unreleased music is presented alongside the unfadeable 'I Check 4 U' and two classic streetsoul cuts from her 1995 EP, 'Life Changes You' and 'Coming Back'. The common denominator across the album is of course Bô'vel herself: a singer of rare timbral clarity whose musical vision has determined the sound of every record she has made, a prolific and personal song-writer in the UK soul tradition, and the artist behind one of the most celebrated underground soul tunes of the pirate radio era. Still most definitely someone to check for. More

Soulstatejazz, under the leadership of the multi-talented Tom Ellis, unveils their latest auditory adventure, “SOL 3”, released on Chapelle XIV. This double LP vinyl is a symphonic journey, demonstrating a matured finesse in blending jazz, electronic, and house music. Recorded in the creative hubs of Mark Hand’s studio in Hartlepool and the Malt Barn studio in Wales, “SOL 3” is an embodiment of musical innovation and collaborative spirit.

Tom Ellis, showcasing his virtuosic skills, handles drums, percussion, bass, guitar, piano, and synths, setting a dynamic foundation for the album. Mark Hand’s mastery of the Fender Rhodes and synths adds a melodic depth, complemented by Michiel Renger’s soulful tenor sax. Dave Elson’s contributions with electronic percussion and effects, coupled with Vicky Flint’s mesmerizing trumpet and flute, create a rich, multi-layered soundscape. The inclusion of Bugu Pala and Charles Morgan’s evocative vocals further enriches the album’s diverse palette.

“SOL 3” stands out as an exploration of rhythm, melody, and improvisation. It is an album where each track seamlessly transitions into the next, creating a continuous musical narrative that is both engaging and transformative. The ensemble’s ability to fuse diverse elements into a cohesive sound is remarkable, making “SOL 3” a testament to their creative evolution and a landmark in contemporary jazz and electronic music.

Released by Chapelle XIV Music and distributed by Yoyaku Distribution, “SOL 3” is not just an album; it’s an experience. It’s a vibrant, eclectic mix that is poised to become one of the standout releases of the year. This album is a must-have for aficionados of jazz, house, and electronic music, encapsulating the essence of live, improvisational brilliance.

Tracklist:
Part 1 :
A1. Is It Us? – 09’43
A2. Back Again – 06’14
B1. Rebels Reprise – 07’40
B2. Getcha – 06’43
Part 2 :
C1. Meaning Shift – 07’22
C2. Memetic Boogaloo – 06’51
D1. Pole Star – 06’25
D2. Counter Balance – 11’13 More