What a dream! If your on a trip across America making a film about independent record shops, why not take it one step further and compile a book on the subject with the bonus of some essays and interviews before the digital age of mp3s takes over total control of how we buy and listen to music? That’s what Emma Pettit did and Old Rare New is the comprehensive book to proove it.

J.Rawls recently appeared on Peterson’s Worldwide radio show and it was one of the best interviews he’s done recently as it featured music from the forthcoming collaboration album with Middle Child.

The first thing that strikes you when hearing The Pack A.D for the first time is that this lot have filtered all the best of from rock, blues and boogie for Funeral Mixtape and it’s loud enough to wake the dead!

Don’t let the conceptual nature of the daft title put you off as Canadian DMC champion DJ Brace presents an instrumental hip-hop album from another dimension.

One of the standard bearers of the current beat generation is Flying Lotus and his first album on Warp was a tribute in sound to his home town of L.A. but does it travel?

This, I feel, is Dwele’s best album yet, with twenty songs that give his fans a taster of his thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Now-Again have done the impossible, they’ve hit on a combination that can challenge their own Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke as they put the Sun Ra and James Brown in the Sahara

Shawn Lee’s success as a musician has taken him all over the planet and in an effort to reduce his carbon footprint, he’s been hard at work in his studio to bring us 21 tracks that cover miles of different styles; ideal for global music appreciation.

I missed Rupa & The April Fishes this time around on their European tour but after listening to their debut album, I won’t make the same mistake next time around.

Full marks to Keith LeBlanc for remixing these blues tunes from the vaults of Chess and bringing them some new attention

You’ve heard the singles and at long last Mr. Daedelus Darling presents his album that he loves to Love To Make Music To; simply, album of the year!

Has Lalah Hathaway produced a modern classic to bear comparison with her father’s work?

If revenge was on Kaki King’s mind as she wrote and recorded her latest album it’s a slow burning revenge of which little shows on the surface.

Recorded in New York in 1968 and originally released on a private label, for the first time this lost gem gets a commercial release; Hear, O Israel - A Prayer Ceremony In Jazz

Queens is the place to be if the soundtrack to the NY borough is anything like this new compilation on BBE; totally awesome, inspirational and essential

When we say James Pants is HOT we actually mean he’s PANTS. Let put that another way, James Pants is HOT PANTS! No that’s not quite right but here’s a big FLY Welcome to the stunning world of James Pants.

Students at the FLY academy will immediately recognise Jackson Conti as the combined talents of Otis Jackson, Jr (aka Madlib) and Ivan (Mamão) Conti (he of Azymuth); lets face it, that makes Sujinho indispensible in itself.

Warning! This CD contains bad language from the very start. Warning! this is hip hop for folks that like a laugh and have a heathy disrespect for Hollywood celeb culture

This is not you’re usual house music, this is Cadence Weapon’s House Music. Absolutely the best party rave-up track for sometime

Soul legend Al Green is rightly feted as music deity, his soul-kissed gospel-tinged vocals eclipsing a seemingly impossible marriage of the sensuous and the spiritual

I’ve said it before, Lyrics Born, one of our favourite artists comes back big with his first studio album since 2003’s highly praised Later That Day

The transatlantic connections between Southampton and North America have a long history and this new one has more bounce than what’s her name in that Titanic film.

It’s not that often we get to hear a new blues album that features a real harmonica player with tunes to match, so when we do, we like to go press the Code Blue emergency button

When you get a little tired at work, the temptation is to start to watch the clock; Hrs:Mins:Secs drag by - not this new single from Daedelus as he puts on another cloak of inspiration on the decks

2008 is the year of Pants. Yep, Pants will be in your face very soon with his peculiar style of get down and dirty.

Septuagenarian Steve Reich’s latest album is that odd mixture of classical minimalism of jazz infused cinematic operetta; in other words, it’s brilliant.

Gilles Peterson went a bit futuristica on us this week and quite rightly was getting excited with Ohio based Replife with his brilliant multi-faceted debut album, The Unclosed Mind

Tal M. Klein is a name you may not be too familar with as he’s also been known as Trancenden and The Hotness over the years. This new album shows how hot he is on the breaks and funk scene as it’s much more that “the same old thing”

When there’s news of a Dabyre release from the Two/Three sessions, it’s time to get dirty and find out what’s going down at Ghostly International.

Not heard from King Britt for a while and while there’s more than one good reason for joining him on “a spiritual quest for a higher sound”, because it’s brilliant will do for starters

The sub-title of this compilation (Greatest Samples From The Blue Note Lab) gives the game away as Blue Note plunders its illustrious back catalogue for yet another compilation of their greatest hits that have been sampled and scratched by the hip hop community

When Cadence Weapon raps about the tough streets of Edmondton, his accent gives it away that he’s not from North London, this is ‘Oliver Square’ hip-hop outta Canada and Big Dada Recordings’ latest discovery

Al Kent Presents his The Million Dollar Orchestra on BBE Music this year, a sublimely soulful album following in the funky foot steps of Omar or Amy Winehouse but this time with a full orchestra and more old school funk and soulful disco

Connie Price and The Keystones claim to make “hip hop influenced cinematic soul music”. Listening to their second album, Tell Me Something, it doesn’t take long to understand what they mean by that; it means they make a bloody good noise

Keeping it real jazz for folks who feel jazz. Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label goes out west to track down the legend of Jose James

For Mia Doi Todd blog watchers, you know there’s an album coming soon but hey! what a taster of a single this is. Another mesmerising performance that’ll keep you awake with joy

Those that got high over Christmas with the single from Robert Owens, ‘Merging’ will be ecstatic to hear that the album is coming out next month with an array of the finest producers to match the finest vocalist in dance music

After the excitement of the Jef Gilson Septet Avec Lloyd Miller 10” release, Kindred Spirits have gone the extra mile and re-issued the incredibly brilliant and equally rare album, Soul Of Africa

‘Get Riches’ is the first official single from the forthcoming album Ode To The Ghetto on Stones Throw Records and finds us back in Detroit for some old-skool hip-hip

The stark reality is that this album by The Heliocentrics is definitely Out There but totally within your reach and you must get your hands on it

Fela managed it and Mulatu too, now Steve Reid unites jazz with Africa.

Feel good house served up by the Sultan of Montreal in a celebration of the Yoshitoshi label

If you asked if the Fly office to come up with some suitable remixers for Keep Reachin’ Up, most of the them would be on this superb album of remixes

Watts Happening is what’s happening

Movimiento Popular is the kind of music you might expect to hear blaring from a crackly car radio in Havana or echoing out of a dusty grocery store in Santiago, its origins however lie in Austin, Texas

Behold the Dawn. Jazz collective Build An Ark make a compelling case for this to be the album of the year

In the early sixties, Albert Ayler was the figurehead of a vibrant jazz community in Cleveland. Norman Howard and Joe Phillips were disciples and these ‘lost tape’ sessions finally get the full ESP-disk release that should have happened back in 1968

Baton down the hatches…the dance torrent, Waterslide, has arrived! Yes, The Bonedaddys are breaking out their much anticipated brand new album

The second release on Headman’s Relish Recordings by Don Cash is another tower of strength from Toronto’s whiz kid and it’s one of the sounds of the year

Just when you thought the well of dusty grooves had dried up, New York’s Kon & Amir have put together a collection of rarities that will get you excited for your next big break

Orgone first burst onto the scene with their floor filling cover version of ‘Funky Nassau’ on the Ubiquity Records compilation Rewind Vol. 4. Having built up an impressive live reputation they now release their debut album The Killion Floor. It’s definitely funky, but does it add to the sounds it so faithfully references?

Longstanding, free-spirited soul-collective stand up and be counted for their 0 studio album, becoming older, wiser and with even more disregard for the contemporary wave of thought.

Not to be confused with the Kaiser Chief’s theme tune, Hezekiah’s new album continues Rawkus’ push to set the new standard of hip hop

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings follow up Naturally with a killer album that takes you back to the school of blues and soul

As with the first volume of ‘Choices’, this is an EP of exclusive Ubiquity tunes, Volume 2 takes on a beat focus, ideal for hip hop and soul heads.

All this talk of the country being obese in the press makes you contemplate on you own position as a role model for the kids. Abdominal has taken it further and got busy in the gym; and Natural Self and Mr. Lamdin donate a Brighton punch bag of a remix!

As half of 1990s sensation Zhane, ethereal chanteuse Jean Baylor’s emotive vocals graced memorable grooves like ‘Hey Mr. DJ’, ‘Sending My Love’ and ‘Crush’

The original Wild Style comes in at No 1 in Peter Shapiro’s The Twenty Best Hip Hop Albums Ever Made. You know that the author of The Rough Guide To Hip Hop knows what he’s talking about and so now is a good time to get it as the album gets re-issued on its 25th Anniversary

“I’ve got a secret, and I ain’t goin’ to keep it ‘cos I want you to know it Baby.” So starts the first track on Keb Darge’s CD of this two-disc compilation as he, and Cut Chemist let us into the little known world of Rockabilly and the Jump Blues

There was I thinking about when are we going to hear from Do Right! recently only to find this collection from our favourite lady of Canadian jazz is going to be released very soon

Since the launch of Brownswood Recordings last year, there’s a huge feel good factor about their releases to date. Be prepared, the Elan Mehler Quartet are the deep, thoughtful, melodic jazz exception in their scheme of things

I almost threw this one straight in the bin due to its stupid name.

By 1966 Cherry was a name in jazz, notably playing with Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler. Europe was the place to be for the visiting musician and Paris the epicentre of cool

None Shall Pass is Aesop Rock’s fourth album and even if it did take 2 years to produce, it’s bang up to date as he deals with the everyday aspects of life

Charlie Gillett mixes the well-known with underground discoveries, crosses continents, sifts thousands of songs, balances the sexes and blends contemporary and traditional on this year’s crop

Willie Colón performs his final farewell set at London’s Roundhouse as Fania records release his double CD retrospective: The Player

Continuing to adore Interpol’s first two full albums Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics, I had some apprehension about whether their new LP could hit the same heights. Though it has taken a few listens once again I am delighted.

Aesop Rock is a rapper known for his detail-driven narratives and dexterity defying word play and before his fourth album comes out, here’s a taster of his brand of underground hip hop defiance

Theory Hazit of the hiphop is music stable outta Kentucky gets to release the first CD on the resurrected Superrappin label. It won’t be long before you’re praising a higher spirit

Putumayo know how to pick them. From the opening rumbling railroad beat of RobinElla’s ‘Down The Mountain’ you know you’re onto a winner.

It’s easy to forget that Atlantic Starr, best known for pop hits like ‘Secret Lovers’, ‘Always’, and ‘Masterpiece’, began their career as one of the most durable exponents of the urban contemporary and quiet storm movements of the late 70s and early 80s

Seamless’ 2 CD set is crammed with Vintage Grooves from the birth of hip hop that bring back sweet memories for this older rap cat

For an album called Work With Me, it’s notable that it’s singularly contained within the talents of Brooklyn based rapper/producer Domer

Following on from Explosivos and Action (Speaks Louder Than Words), can you really resist a compilation CD (or a box set of ten 7”s) of rare as funky hens’ teeth from King family of labels. Of course not

Dee Dee has just released a wonderful album recorded in her spiritual homeland of Mali. Of course she was physically born in Memphis, TN but she explains on the DVD that as soon as she saw the bright Malian red earth, she felt that she had arrived home

Now I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, or a CD for that matter, but it’s hard not to get excited by an album that boasts a bikini-clad lady leading a sombrero-wearing donkey down the road on its cover

While offspring Rufus and Martha have taken the limelight away from the old man of late, this (almost) soundtrack to Judd Aptow’s comedy feature film, Knocked Up, is being called LW3’s best album in 15 years

“Sometimes I look at what Mr. J. is accomplishing and I think this guy will be Rawkus’ biggest star EVER”, Rawkus co-founder Brian Brater

Paul Bonomo is probably not one of you’re favourite Snax yet, but this slice of twisted electro synth funk puts him well above even a bag of Cheese ‘n’ Onion flava on my shopping list

“We are going to be talking about the rise and rise of Sa-Ra in a minute but first the travel”, did I hear that right? Has the news of the debut album hit national radio already?

With their seventh album release last month and an appearance on Jools Holland’s Later, why aren’t these guys household names?

Joshua Redman emerged in 1992 with great acclaim for his self-titled album. Like a beacon of hope, Redman offered a vibrant and engaging jazz, which was many miles way away from the stuffiness that the genre can be guilty of. This was jazz to listen to, fall in love with (and to) and importantly (and something which is often lost in jazz) the sheer, simple ability to whistle a tune in the morning

Mention of Earth, Wind & Fire should bring a nostalgic glow of soul, funk, jazz and love. This new album of ten top cover versions certainly does that

When Gilles Peterson played ‘Lost Without U’ a couple of weeks ago, I thought who is this Robin Thicke?

The Def Jam of Latin music is back with the latest in its series of re-issues. This time it’s the voices of the Fania stable that get the digital treatment

Putumayo World continues its exploration of the Latin sound with its début jazz release. It opts for the obvious rather than the surprising (Ray Barretto, Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri all appear) but provides a good introduction to the world of Latin jazz

Comprised of four trumpeters, two trombonists, a drummer and a sousaphone player — make way for an 8-piece band bringing brass supremacy

The latest in Time Out’s series of other sides matches LA’s greatest beats magician to compile the CD while his Stones Throw boss takes us on the DVD tour

Still Music have done it again — this time by enticing soulful dancefloor fillers Patchworks back into the fold

An unbelievable 40 years after their first hit ‘Soul Finger’, the Bar-Kays’ new album shows that they’re still superstars and the music is as good, if not better, than that of the image-obsessed r&b stars of today

Balanced Records have managed to attract a whole host of new producers for this remix project and it’s not just the pride of Manitoba! File under downtempo, dub, broken beat, house, MOD X and must get!

War, what is it good for? Music, perhaps. Waajeed of Platinum Pied Pipers delivers a sombre long player

In Cuba they have a stew called ‘agiaco’ into which anything can be incorporated, Revolucion is the musical equivalent. It mixes son Cubano, jazz, funk, Latin dance and reggae, it has tracks in both French and Spanish and owes as much to New York as Cuba.

Modus Vivendi Music say they create forward-thinking future music by any means

Lovers of rare groove, soul and funk should lick their lips as Ubiquity subsidiary Luv N’ Haight delivers once again, focusing on lesser known artists from the California area

Great track, shame about the rapping . . .

Every now and then the thin membrane that separates popular from eclectic is pierced and all kinds of interesting things slip through before the membrane repairs itself. This compilation celebrates a series of popular mash ups of Gyspy, Balkan and pop sounds from Central and Eastern Europe (and New York)

The prolific compiler and taste-maker Gilles Peterson delivers his first Latin compilation after digging through a few hundred Fania albums

“Cupids Chokehold is a kwel ass song!!”

Shuddering strings set the tone in the album’s opener ‘Ache’ — which enchants and steadily pounds the album into life, comparable to a bleak fairytale with beauty emerging through darkness like within a Miles Davis solo

Gilles Peterson is on a roll at the moment writing the sleeve notes to Steve Reid’s forthcoming solo album on Domino but before that comes out in October, there’s the double act with Kieran Hebden to come to terms with.

This reissue is part of the Keepnews Collection highlighting the contribution to jazz of one of the music’s top producers, Orrin Keepnews. Here ‘Cannonball’ delivers the soul jazz manifesto live to the beatniks of ‘Frisco.

UK jazz legend has produced a masterpiece in the form of Hoarded Dreams

Displaying the broad skills of artists on their roster, Dutch label Kindred Spirits have compiled a splendid mix of varied beats.

Back in the day, Rawkus was the independent hip hop label outta NYC breaking names like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Hi-Tek and Pharoahe Monch. And here’s some good news: Rawkus is on its way back

The carpenters of hip hop shape up the very best on the first in a series from Up Above Records called Carving A New Standard

New-York based band Chin Chin’s eponymous debut is an intriguing affair. The album brings disco into the noughties and puts you in mind of what fellow New Yorkers Scissor Sisters might have sounded like if they had grown up listening to Ohio Players instead of Elton John

Jazzman Records are worshipped for their crate diggin’ and for this new collection, they got DJ Ian Wright to delve into the lesser known reaches of the funky sisterhood

In 1961, this was part of the jazz ‘new wave’ on Impulse! and how exciting to have been on this Creed Taylor produced album

Outward Bound was his first album as a leader recorded in 1960 on the New Jazz label (later Prestige) and is now remastered as another ‘lost’ gem on the RVG Edition series

You might recall that Solidaze is one of ten Canadian producers that form a collective at Balanced Records and this sees last year’s album remixed and repackaged for a download only release

Canada’s Swollen Members have now released five albums with their latest being Black Magic and you can catch them live at the Jazz Cafe on Monday 12 March.

Electronic impro-jazz from Canada via New York

‘In the Meantime’ is being billed as a record to kick out those winter blues and, apart from being rather late (it’s not out till April 23rd) that’s exactly what it does

Debut release from the conscious battle rapper Naledge and producer Double 0.

Thirty three years after its original release Gathering is getting a second airing as folk jazz rises on the wheel again

Blow Your Whistle shouldn’t be taken as an instruction. Whistles are terrible things, with no place on the dancefloor and very little use outside aids for maritime rescue.

I opened this CD mainly on account it comes out of Righteous Babe Records, the prolific, sometimes genius Ani di Franco’s label, hoping it to be a shot of adreneline-charged, Americana folk.

Greasy soul takes on a rather visual meaning with Andre Williams demanding his ‘Chicken Thighs’ (‘I’d give my right eye for a thigh, ‘coz I’m a greedy greedy man’) in Vampisoul’s Movers.

Travel the spaceways with the Life Force Trio

On-U Soundman Adrian Sherwood is reunited with Little Axe for more off-kilter adventures in sound

Barbara Bonfiglio is the Sicilian born Canadian DJ/producer, better known as Misstress Barbara, with a 12” called ‘Barcelona’ out on a London based label. Fairly global?

If the origins of the artists on Putumayo’s A New Groove are diverse, the connecting theme is laid-back jazz fuelled songwriting - lounge jazz for a new generation

There was a bit of a delay in the release of this one but anything by Mark Murphy is eagerly awaited by fans of the ever youthful jazz crooner

Salsa is and was a controversial term for music that escaped between the edges of definition. It wasn’t simply Puerto Rican, Cuban, commercial, from New York, black etc and yet it wasn’t possible without all of these things

You’ll know the history of the blues as it progressed from the sharecroppers in Mississippi Delta, the electrification of the blues with the migration to Chicago and Detroit and the influence on young British rock/pop bands in the sixties. Even so, this compilation by Nigel Williamson is a reminder of how very great the greats were

Providing entertainment for home listeners, djs or music-makers after a killer or quirky beat or break, Shawn Lee’s Voices and Choices is a goldmine of sounds.

Ambient, techno, African roots and folk with elements of progressive rock from an artist better known for writing scores for film.

Manifest Tone Vol.1 generates images and feelings that originated in Lagos during the 70s but which have been splendidly re-produced in 21st Century New Jersey.

You don’t often get a line up like this one: Myra Barnes, Common, Roy Hargrove and Erykah Badu!

Chicago label Locust Music spotted the nu-folk Manchester based Starless & Bible Black and released their debut album late last year.

Nat Baldwin has the whole Jeff Buckley vocal thing going on, plaintif and high. Yet this isn’t the most remarkable thing going for his debut album Lights Out: the most remarkable aspect is that the vocals are recorded solely with double bass as accompaniment.

So how long has it been Since The Last Time we were getting down with Arrested Development?

Town And Country have been quiet of late but their latest CD has caught the spirit of the experimental, folk modern classic.

Hi-Tek’s Hi-Teknology from 2001 linked him with all the names at Rawkus like Common, Talib Kweli and Mos Def. The new album, The Chip, provides an even more impressive list of guests but Hi-Tek has produced his own album.

If you love your techno, you love Craig and Garnier but check the tracklisting to this double CD set before you buy.

The latest single from Kool Keith (aka Dr. Octagon) has touched a nerve on MTV

Two/Three logically follows on from Dabrye’s 2001 debut One/Three.

The final part of this quartet of Milestone Profiles, we find another post-bopper that was ready for the experimental fusion period of the late 60s to mid 70s

This year was the 40th Anniversary of Milestone Records and the saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins has been associated with them for all but five of those years

Jimmy Smith wasn’t known as ‘The Incredible’ Jimmy Smith for nuthin’ and to celebrate his Milestone period, here’s another CD in the Profiles series

The man who was so much a part of John Coltrane’s success went onto a solo career that put him at the forefront of jazz piano along with Herbie Hancock, Chick Chorea and Keith Jarrett.

The authentic and tender ‘coffee bean’ is taken from the little, simple land, flown over to the West, repackaged, doused in sugar, combined with more digestible ingredients to cover up the true difference and then sold to a blind audience. It isn’t a representation of culture. It is the interpretation of cultures by the West.

Recorded at the high temple of experimental jazz back in 2001, you don’t even need to open this issue from ESP - Disk to know this is going to be challenging stuff

San Francisco’s Slept On Records have selected some prime cuts for their debut 12” release.

Cake Or Death, a title borrowed from his favourite comedian Eddy Izzard, may very well be the final album of the old man terrible of the music biz. Firstly, he has terminal cancer and secondly he says he hasn’t got the money to produce another anyway

Putumayo bring huge doses of sassy seasonal cheer to the world from New Orleans

Mule Musiq have an interesting back catalogue, but this Limited Edition 12” is unusual even for them, according to Gerry Hectic on his trip back into no wave land

About this time a couple of years ago, I had a stand-up row with a journalist from Kerrang! about the relative merits of Kate Bush. “Pointless, self-indulgent warbling…” is a phrase of mine that comes to mind, so why on earth am I so smitten by Joanna Newsom?

The Cuban-American from Miami causing waves at the moment is Pitbull and there’s a ‘Bojangles’ Remix coming out to promote the forthcoming album El Muriel.

The one man band of the twenty-first century no longer straps a bass drum to his back and cymbols between his legs. All he needs is a loop sampler, a guitar, the ability to beatbox and something to say, (which sounds better even if it doesn’t look quite as distinctive).

The cover of this CD is ‘Study for Samson St. Series’ (1998) by Eveline Kotai and it really suits the ambient feel of Solo Andata’s debut release…

Earlier this year, Tacoma Mockingbird was released on Hefty Records and it’s just the thing for electronic hip hop heads.

Ugly Duckling take the Scala, London by storm

This is the fourth album by the Toronto-based collective of Kinder Atom as they continue to explore the myriad styles of electronic music

Guru pronounces, “you can put me in the hall of fame, I’m worldwide, I’m a legend at this game.” Maybe, but is his latest solo effort (the dog’s) bollocks?

I tried to resist it, but if you play the first track on Thunderball’s Cinescope album The Road to Benares, you become dangerously close to sliding on a pair of mafia wife shades, something black preferably PVC, calling yourself Trinity or Blade and embarking on a Thelma and Louise road trip.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for this one since the release of a one-sided promo of ‘Projections Of (What) Might…’ early this year.

Kwanza is a celebration of “all things African and African-American”.

Going to see this film was one of Gilles Peterson’s recomendations for the 2006 London Jazz Festival and as Mr. Ayler said, “If people don’t like it now, they will”.

It’s somewhat of a big boast to get the sound of the city of angels on one 12” but Plug Research don’t tend to do things by halves.

The meeting of City Of God star’s “smoky voice” from Rio and the ‘forro’ from the Northeast of Brazil transplanted to NYC’s Nublu club on a Wednesday night is a winning combination.

You often hear the phrase, he/she loves the sound of their own voice. In Peven Everett’s case he’s not the only one.

Pure Fire! is a suitable companion to the recent Sunday Afternoon At Dingwall release and it features some of our long time heroes on the scene and some top tunes like the classic ‘See You Later’ and ‘The Blessing Song’

“I’m writin’ a letter to the old skool, shockin’ and rockin’ the house” sums up this album in many ways, but there’s more to it than just a homage to eighties b-boys.

Plucked straight out of 60s soul fever this Double CD compilation is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any Aretha Franklin or James Brown fan. Plugged as being ‘El Soul música, made in the USA, para las discotecas españolas’ or rather Soul music, made in the USA for Spanish clubs, this collection does exactly what it says on the tin

If you didn’t know better, you may have thought that Xzibit is only the presenter of Pimp My Ride on MTV. His new album, Full Circle sees a return to his rappin’ roots.

Out on the West Coast, the ‘hy-phy movement’ is begining to see light in the mainstream, a long standing and evolving hip hop subcultural style that originated in the Bay Area

I’m told Gym Class Heroes are, “too indie to be hip hop, too hip hop to be indie” but is that a problem?

Subtitled, ‘greasy and explicit soul movers 1956 - 1970’, this collection of raw gut-bucket rhythm and blues is heavy on the blues and about as subtle as a German porn movie

Artful rockers Mercury Rev show their eclectic tastes off in the latest in the Back To Mine mix CD series

Radio 1’s Huw Stephens from Cardiff and your humble correspondent wouldn’t seem to have much in common, but there’s a couple of things we agree on. Fancy dress parties aren’t our thing and we’re both big Daedelus fans.

Nobody likes the summer to end and this forthcoming 12” is going to be doing the rounds until the very end of the last days of the holidays.

Sunday Best’s Rob da Bank has been busy getting this mammoth 30-track compilation out on the crest of the folk revival

The third in the Gold Digging series features a shed full of tunes sampled by 2Pac (aka Tupac Shakur).

The same names are always cited as the first holy trinity of sax players (Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster). The listing of the second trinity is more disputed, but the first two slots almost always include the same two names: John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter

In a world awash with free cover-mount compilations and triple CDs for a tenner, why on earth would you buy Charlie Gillett’s latest round up? Perhaps because you really do get what you pay for…

I first heard of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy through my brother, whose music collection has a higher than average hit of ‘credible’ if somewhat downbeat, moany albums.

‘Oh, we got both kinds. Country and Western’ Shielah Wells tells Dan Aykroyd in John Landis’ Blues Brothers when he asks about the music in the bar he turns up at. This was such a formative memory it was enough to make ‘country’ a slightly dirty word for me for the best part of two decades.

Causing a stir with the Adventure Time mix of ‘Amor’ at the Worldwide Awards last year, Mia Doi Todd is a vocalist destined to have a much larger audience

Back in my favourite record store in Toronto, “Gerry, I’m glad you’re back, I’ve thought of another one you’ll enjoy.”

While we’re getting to grips with all sounds Canadian, time to check one of Toronto’s leading lights on the DJ and remix scene.

Wow! John Kong and Tim Perlich have dug into the vaults of CBC Radio Canada archives and uncovered some real jazz gems.

The release of this compilation by DJ Sipreano on the breaks label Light In The Attic, caused a bit of a stir when it came out last month.

“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history that we make today.”

When it comes to bass saturated dubness, Bill Laswell is a name to be ignored at your peril.

To continue the Canadian tour and our love of all things dub, I couldn’t believe the poster in record shop as I arrived in Montréal on a Monday; “DUB OUT! Tous Les Lundis”.

Kool Keith (aka Dr. Octagon) is holding his surgery in the cage of the UFC as he battles with some beats to make a perfect world after his arrival from Jupiter

Sometimes less is more and by focussing on Satchmo’s early life, Brothers sheds more light on Armstrong than many biographies covering the artist’s whole life have done

This is an overlooked gem from 1973, recorded at the Townhall, New York City a couple of days before Christmas. Sun Ra’s mind was on his ‘Space is the Place’ film and like an avant-garde film of that time, the music is restless, shifting and all over the space

Mr. Franti has many admirers including none other than Chris Blackwell who has said that he is “the most important artist recording and touring today who has yet to reach a mass audience.”

When you’re a top internationally acclaimed DJ, Remixer & Producer, it’s little surprise that your album has a DJ set feel to it.

Extraterrestrial hip hop? Well it isn’t world music, but it’s certainly different…

It seems a long time ago that Sa-Ra graced the cover of Straight No Chaser as ‘The Future of Funk’… Gerry warms to them afresh with a first listen to their new album

What a great compilation this is lovingly put together by MKL and featuring one of the best Fat Freddy’s Drop remixes you will find.

It’s from Putumayo — expect nothing less than for it to do exactly what it says on the tin.

Kinky’s Ulises Lozano (keyboards, accordion, programmer) talks about their new album Reina and creating their unique sound

Bronx-born Latino ‘Little’ Louie Vega teamed up with Venezuelan percussion maestro Luisito Quintero on the ground-breaking Nuyorican Soul project nearly ten years ago, and this rhythm-soaked recording takes the union in a whole new direction.

Kool Keith (aka Dr. Octoagon) is the ex-Ultramagnetic MCs outta the Bronx old skool but definitely has a nu-skool open mind to his hip-hop thing.

Brad Mehldau is one of those names you recognise from jazz reviews but I’d not heard of Renee Fleming before.

The Bay Area continues to throw up intelligent hip hop while much of the rest of the States continues its frantic materialistic bingeing, literally, to the end of the earth.

Here’s some summer hip hop that’s happy with its old skool heritage

Malena Pérez is blessed with a beautiful voice and with Cuban-American roots, she can sing in both Spanish and English.

Don’t expect anything like his re-mixed work of late as this is, whisper it, a little concept albumish

San Francisco-based Tadd Mullinix dropped his first long-player under the Dabrye moniker way back in 2001. His progressive, beat-driven take on instrumental hip hop garnered serious plaudits from the hip hop cognoscenti and now, five years on, he’s back to do it all over again.

The legacy continues. Chico remains on form with a beautifully textured album that stays true to an old jazz ethos and vibe, but executes it so passionately that it sounds as fresh as ever.

From the maverick beatsmiths Ammoncontact, comes With Voices an album packed with all the trademark warped menace and skewed soulful excursions the duo are famed for. More collaboration-focussed and vocal-based than previous outings this is the colossus album the duo have always wished to make and threatened to craft.

Still exploring the phenomenon of groove at the ripe old age of 84, renowned percussionist Chico Hamilton is living proof that not every cat has had its day

“You’ve influenced my next album more than you’d think”, Daedelus, August 2005.

The atmosphere at the Joshua Tree Music Festival is like stumbling across a campsite of a large family reunion full of cousins whose names you can’t remember but they are still glad to see you. For three short days Joshua Tree Music Festival creates a unique world in the California desert with over 26 bands, food, and various desert vendors

Solidaze is one of the ten Canadian producers that form a collective at Balanced Records.

“Come on it’s just a song…. it sounds great I love it …”

Even before I’d heard this CD by Jesse Rose, I was impressed. I remembered that in a recent DJ magazine, there was a short interview with him where he warned us about the amount of “same shit” house music coming out of Miami this year. You’ll understand where he’s coming from when you hear his album of collaborations, Presents More Than One

Hot on the heels of ‘Watch The Tables Turn’ there’s a limited edition 7” coming out soon on GPS Recordings that’s caught my eye.

Good to have a 7” vinyl single to support the release of the new Tunng album.

There are few artists who inspire the kind of devotion that encourages fans to travel halfway round the world for the chance of seeing them.

Jimmy McGriff is one of the biggest names of 1970s jazz (not to mention being a fave with the acid jazz crowd)

Voltage Music has pulled out a big one here.

Ugly Duckling might not have the ring of other street cred hip hop luminaries but there’s more to this album than just the pop-art cover to be admired

Devendra Banhar’s tripped out and lonely tunes come across as simultaneously disaffected and innocent and his latest release is one of high contrasts: delicate and attacking, rambling and coherent.

A crucial component to the development of jazz music in the 60s and 70s, Impulse! Records were responsible for a series of ground breaking free jazz releases that consistently lived up to the label motto of “The New Wave In Jazz”

Somewhat of an unknown quantity DJ Drez, proves himself to be quite a talent recording, arranging, mixing and producing Jahta Beat in its entirety

Having recently concentrated his efforts upon other bands, other formations of his band (from duo, to quartet to quintet) and endless work in the capacity of either side-man, studio musician or collaborator, Charlie Hunter finds himself returning to where it all began — the trio

The impeccable Soul Brother Record’s latest release is as essential as the old Jazz with Attitude sessions.

Dwight Trible has been hangin’ out with all the youngsters but his latest album brings back a golden age of jazz.

The combination of a New York born Willis, producer/husband Jimi Tenor and a Helsinki based backing band have together created a geographically diverse Northern Soul album for the mid-noughties.

Why hasn’t Cassandra Wilson had the success of Norah Jones? Compared to her Blue Note coleague, she had a head start, as it’s been 20 years since her debut album was released.

This slice of light-hearted pop-fuelled acoustica by Alaskan/ Argentinian bi-lingual chillster Johansen and his group the Nada is probably going to be running round your head all summer long.

Spank Rock is hip hop outta Baltimore but the first single got radio plays from Radio 1’s Zane Lowe, Annie Mac & Mary Ann Hobbs. So fairly mainstream then? Well sort of as their hip hop is a strange mash up of old skool influences, a fair touch of electro bass boom and a few swear words (erm… quite a lot of swearing actually).

In a folktronica version of breaks, samples and live instrumentation, LA-based producer ABCDEFG has been sequencing and mixing a soundscape to produce something a little bit more ‘Independent’ than most.

It’s twenty years since Public Enemy first scorched their way into the public’s consciousness with their mould-breaking combination of radical politics and incendiary polemic, however the years since the glory days of the late-1980s and early-1990s have seen the struggle to stay relevant in an increasingly fickle hip hop scene.

Malkovich instantly demonstrates his confident and able rapping ability, which he uses to drop a variety of flows and styles throughout this hit and miss album

Gym Class Heroes are a four piece indie/hiphop band from upstate New York. Much of this, their debut album which follows on from a series of EPs, is great material, showcasing a tight combination of live instrumentation with similarities to the UK’s own Rawdog

This NatAural High Recordings release is an enjoyable US album showing the solid talents of many little known producers and vocalists

Rich Medina is a DJ, poet, performer and now producer of his first album, Connecting The Dots. It was released on Dutch label Kindred Spirit earlier in the year and as there’s a growing interest in the jazz poetic at the moment, it’s a good time to have a closer listen

Gilles Peterson digs out obscure gems from well-known jazz masters and Jazzanova get to play with contemporary forces

Windmills of The Soul is Kero One’s debut album and the Plug Label’s first full-length release. In addition to the vocals, Mr One is also responsible for the scratching, bass, Moog, synths and the Fender Rhodes playing. Apart from some guest vocals this guy is pretty much self-contained but you wouldn’t think so from the full on soulful sound.

Atlanta-based quintet The Bordercollies serve up a new album of mostly original tunes along similar lines to their last album The Road From Swannanoa.

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes a band ready to break the rules. The fact that The Youngblood Brass Band are a nine piece that’s being assembled from all over the US (Madison, WI / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA / Chicago, IL) is rare enough but these guys are a hip hop brass band!

Originally from 1968, the Soul Survivors are still surviving (via CD at least).

Cool, eclectic flows from a contemporary native tribalist…

An album of sax and guitar with nothing else to disturb it immediately sets alarm bells ringing. Sustaining interest with 2 instruments for a whole album is a fairly heavy ask of anyone, but Tom Tallisch and Dave Manley pull it off in fantastic style.

Stating the obvious, Colossus is huge. ‘The Tribute’ EP has the names and the hybrid hip hop beats we love and with the guest appearances of choice

Gilles Peterson has gone and done it again.

This one caught my eye but only after I saw the review in Metro, who gave it one star out of five. We’re on the ‘explicit lyrics’ issue again. As the paper says, Mr. Banner spends “four minutes telling his girl to play with herself. No wonder I haven’t heard it on the radio”.

Clearly, the clichés and disco template are evident such as the sythns, handclaps, Chic guitar and bassline but don’t write this off as a musicial George Orwell +1000.

For a few short years from 1966-70, Latin Soul was the hip, young sound of Spanish Harlem. A riotous collision of Latin rhythms, late-1960s psychedelia and Afro-