Back in print by popular demand ! Finally this Ghost Gem left by Jiro Inagaki's Soul Media has been repressed on vinyl for the first time thanks to Cinedelic Records.

‘Woodstock Generation’ is a masterpiece of Japanese jazz/rock funk/soul that for some it even considered better then the acclaimed "Head Rock" in terms of perfection; surely there are many points in common between the two albums having been made a few months later, in 1970. Behind "The Soul Medium" name hides saxophonist Jiro Inagaki, an iconic figure of the japanese Jazz Rock scene during the late sixties to the early seventies. Jiro is supported by his legendary quintet "Soul Media" under its first incarnation featuring Ryo Kawasaki (g) Yasuo Arakawa (b) Masaru Imada (org) Sadakazu Tabata (ds) with Tetsuo Fushimi & Shunzo Ohno on trumpet in addition.

"Woodstock Generation" is a tribute album to the Woodstock Festival including cover of songs performed on the stage by Sly & Family Stone (I Want To Take You Higher) The Who (Summertime Blues) or Ten Years After (Spoonful) but also Woodstock (written by Joni Mitchell in honor of the Festival) and Mamma Told Me (Not To Come) written by Randy Newman for Eric Burdon and The Animals. Titles include also variations on the "Head Rock" theme "The Ground For Peace” and original composition of Masahiko Sato "Knick Knack". All tracks arranged by Jiro Inagaki.

Artwork by Eric Adrian Lee.

Jiro Inagaki - tenor saxophone soprano saxophone
Masaru Imada – organ
Ryo Kawasaki – guitar
Yasuo Arakawa – bass
Sadakazu Tabata – drums
Tetsuo Fushimi, Shunzo Ohno – trumpet

Tracklist:

Side A
Opening (J. Inagaki) 2:35
Woodstock (J. Mitchell) 4:27
I Want To Take You Higher (S. Stewart) 3:46
Mama Told Me (R. Newman) 2:38
Summertime Blues (E. Cochran) 3:29

Side B
Spoonful (W. Dixon) 4:31
The Ground For Peace (Y. Arakawa) 5:41
Head Rock (J. Inagaki) 4:58
Knick Knack (M. Sato) 3:21

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Revision of new beats on the horizon
Every 20 years or so, certain musical movements come full circle. Young musicians are inspired by genres dating back two decades, channelling them through their modern sensibility. The legendary J Dilla’s Donuts album was released in 2006 and instantly marked a starting point for the work of musicians worldwide, laying the foundations especially for the beat scene in Los Angeles. A whole young generation of musicians brought up on the new, instrumental and abstract hip-hop has carried jazz into a new era. The four London-based musicians who make up Uniri have gone one step further by abandoning the idea of a jazz band and "bedroom production" in favour of collective composing, creating a new look at the new-beat aesthetics, framing it as a road novel set in an unspecified time and space.

Uniri translates as ‘one unified dream’ and is the key driving motto of the project conceived by Chiminyo (Cykada, Maisha), the band's founder and head honcho. The project materialised in his private studio, where he invited fellow jazz musicians Amane Tsuganami (Jorja Smith, Maisha), Al Macsween (Nubya Garcia, Gary Bartz, Kefaya) and Luke Wynter (Nubyan Twist, Golden Mean) to spontaneously compose together. Hence, despite this being the band's first album, it wouldn't be right to call them rookies. The result of Uniri's collaborative work is the psychedelic, rhythmic album Infinite Reflections, packed with cosmic and warm synths, which neatly balances hip-hop beat and jazz composition. It's safe to say this music is even more appealing when played live, although it's equally suited to the club dancefloor.

UK Jazz has become a permanent fixture in the London landscape, but also across Europe and the US. Today, the musicians who shape the new wave of jazz are drawing on more and more genres, reducing solo improvisation for the benefit of composition and increasingly drawing on influences from the beat scene. Among such formations are the British NOK Cultural Ensemble, the Polish Bloto, the Belgian ECHT!, and the Dutch Comité Hypnotisé. Uniri is part of this emerging yet already international trend, creating an entirely fresh aesthetic that echoes artists such as Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Dorian Concept, Ras G and Nosaj Things oriented around the Californian 'new beats generation' scene.

The title Infinite Reflections alludes to a phenomenon observable on the open sea or during intercontinental flights. Gazing at the horizon blurs the boundary between the ocean and the sky, forming an infinite palette of blue shades. This inspiration sparked an elusive musical narrative, navigating between a sea voyage and an astral journey, destination unknown.

The album will be released by Astigmatic Records, with the album scheduled for release on March 29, 2024.

A1 - Soar
A2 - Oneiric Voyage
A3 - Oumuamua
A4 - Outer Sea
A5 - Solaris Ocean
A6 - Neptune's Arck
B1 - Cetus
B2 - Celestial Waves
B3 - Astra's Charge
B4 - Earth-Diver
B5 - Asteroidea


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4th Press - 600 copies only

It didn't take long for Bloto to become a thing, shrouded by underground secrecy. First, there was the gig during Spring Break 2019 in Poznan where the Blue Note club was packed to the brim. That event gave momentum to 4 more performances in Warsaw and Wroclaw, with no music released at that time. Then, the first pressing of the vinyl was sold out within 24 hours without any single nor cover revealed.

The word about Bloto has spread, increasingly gaining ground, reaching Japan, where the album will also be available on CD. No one expected such a turn of events. In fact, neither did the band itself; after all, Bloto came to being accidentally, yet naturally, like a puddle after a rainy day.

It all started in the summer of 2018 when EABS was touring and the band had a day off. As they were approaching Tricity, people were getting off and eventually there were only four musicians. An evening off, a well-tuned rhythm section on the road, harmonious as can be, and a great deal of creative potential within the members of Bloto band forming at that very moment stirred up common enthusiasm. The album was created without much deliberation, stemming from the need of the heart and the joy of making music together. As a result, 90 minutes of music was recorded of which about 40 made it to “Erozje”.

The music is deeply rooted in brutal hip-hop grooves, referring to the sound of 90’s New York. Dirty and uncompromising, this music’s strength lies in the drums and bass as its sound refers to classics such as Wu-Tang Clan and Company Flow. Radical in a sense, it also captures the atmosphere of the times in which it is created. The times of the planet on the verge of disaster, distinct social divisions, hate speech, growing nationalism, police brutality, nepotism, and various political deals. All this is happening before our eyes. The soil of the world as we know it is eroding right now.

Tracklist:

A1 - Kaluze
A2 - Mady
A3 - Czarnoziemy
A4 - Bagna
A5 - Czarne ziemie
A6 - Redziny
B1 - Bielice
B2 - Ziemie zdegradowane przez czlowieka
B3 - Glina
B4 - Gleby brunatne

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Releasing now for well over a decade - Neue Grafik: known to friends as Fred, has successfully transplanted from Parisian rookie to one- man London Institution. Beginning as a solo producer and DJ,Fred spread his wings upon relocating to South London - at first with his Neue Grafik Ensemble and later with his now iconic twice-weekly Orii Jam - the latter of which has given agency to an entire new generation of musicians; spawning an aesthetic, nurturing a unique sound and becoming a launchpad for countless artists.

Dalston Tape Volume 1 is Fred’s attempt to fall back in love with beatmaking - taking it back to the roots of
where the project began. I say “attempt” because he’s simply learnt too much and made too many friends
along the way to make a mere DIY beat tape. Since his early MPC-led productions on Parisian label, Beat
X Changers, Fred has learnt to play the keys to a concert hall standard, he has become proficient in double bass and built up a dense network of collaborators who he has composed, recorded, engineered and produced for both at home in SE London and in the iconic Total Refreshment Centre Studios in Dalston.

This experience adds unavoidable dimensions to his toolbox - resulting in something more akin to a miniature-magnum-opus than a simple beat-tape.

Yes, we hear the influences of Pete Rock, Mad Lib, J Dilla and Al Dobson Jr but we also hear the musicality of D’Aneglo, James Blake and live contributions from an ever growing army of young graduates of the Orii School.

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Jazz Room Head Honcho Paul Murphy kept hearing all these fab versions of some of his favourite tunes. He couldn't release them all, a year is just not long enough so it was time to put together the first Jazz Room Records Compilation, entitled JAZZ ROOM PRESENTS: COVERS. Snappy & to the point. Some exclusives and first time Vinyl releases on this Double Vinyl album, ranging from the Psychedelic Jazz Fusion of Helsinki Collective "Saimaa" with their epic LIVE version of the Deodato Classic "Super Strut" to the Japanese Shibuya Jazz Artistry of Quasimode with a Jazzy take on the Galaxy2Galaxy 90's Techno Floor Filler. Jazz meets Dub in the "Slowly" produced "Riot In Lagos" and some finger snapping Cool New York Vibes on Giacomo Gates Hip To The Trip version of Gil Scott-Heron's "Is That Jazz". There's even a Gospel meets Soul Jazz tribute to Simon and Garfunkel. Oh yeah. Did we say there's a Chip Wickham exclusive too? Louie Vega says: "This is an Awesome Compilation!

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“We started with the principle – the cosmic idea that we were taught by our father from a very young age – that the stars and planets make a sound, that deep in outer space there is audible harmony.”

With its cathedral-like, richly resonant acoustics, the new HBE album is a brilliant expression of this interplanetary principle. The album is by turns urgent and contemplative, funky and reflective, varied in its textures; but entirely of one piece. Underpinned by concepts of our earth’s place in the cosmos, held in place by meditation, swirling with notions of history, science, theology, ancestry, there is a rich conceptual brew here. But always, what talks loudest is the music. The album rings with what back in the 1950s the jazz critic Whitney Balliet called “the sound of surprise”. At a time when the phrase Spiritual Jazz threatens in some quarters to become a tired cliche, this is a record that makes you believe again in the genre’s validity.

Talking to Cid, one of the Ensemble’s two trombonists, one phrase recurs: “back to the beginning”. “We wanted to go back to the beginning, when we were kids, real young, and our father would wake us up at 5 AM to practice for two hours before breakfast.” One outcome – initially unplanned but subsequently embraced – is that unlike their two previous albums on Honest Jon’s, this is an album without a drummer. “When we started, as Wolf Pack, just brothers on the street with our horns, there wasn’t a kit in sight.” Book Of Sound retains plenty of rhythmic heft, but the absence of a drummer opens up space for a notably varied instrumental palette. Acoustic guitar, piccolo, synthesiser, alto sax – none of them typical HBE Instruments – all have their place on the album. Most striking perhaps are the vocal lines that thread through the album and give it a palpable warmth. “In Wolf Pack, we rapped and played, this time we took it a step further.”

Sessions were recorded in Brooklyn and Chicago, and brilliantly mixed at Abel Garibaldi’s studio in the Loop (“Abel was like a musician on this record”), and it’s the Hypnotic’s hometown that permeates. For Cid this is a deeply Chicago record: “it’s got the vibe of the lake, the vibe of the prairies opening up to the west”. It also has the vibe of those Sun Ra Arkestra albums recorded in Chicago in the 1950s, and – of course - the Phil Cohran albums from the 1960s.

It’s Phil Cohran (the father of all seven members of the Ensemble and their first teacher, and not just in music) who is the album’s guiding spirit. For Cid it’s a major regret that, in the months before their father’s death early in 2017, Phil was not well enough to play on the album. “He loved the whole idea, and we had the perfect place for his zither”. But Book Of Sound is a magnificent testament to their Cohran legacy. “You know, it’s tough trying to satisfy everybody with our music. It’s hard enough satisfying ourselves, let alone the jazz scene, the hip hop guys, what have you. With this album we just dropped all that as a consideration, and tuned into deeper principles.”’


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A musical odyssey between West Africa, Jazz, and Hip-Hop Feat Magic Malik, Blacc El (Dafuniks), Fanta / Fatoma / Dramane Dembélé, Mr J.Medeiros, Wamian Kaid. After three critically acclaimed albums, Tribeqa returns with SUMU, a fourth masterful opus that confirms the collective's unique identity: a vibrant dialogue between African roots, the momentum of jazz, and the power of hip-hop.

A1 - Sumu
A2 - Artist
A3 - Dembele
A4 - Respire
A5 - Grand Bassam
B1 - Family
B2 - Secteur 22
B3 - Kouma
B4 - Life
B5 - Wayo

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