If you know All Your Beats you’ll be estatic to know that we’re up to Vol. 3 and it’s out now.

One thing you can say about Ashley Beedle (actually, there lots of things but without contradiction), he is possibly the most polymath of musicians around today and he never lets us down; bring on the Darkstarr!

Solo is Vijay Iyer on Steinway piano playing five orginal pieces and six cover versions of tracks made famous by Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Steve Coleman and Michael Jackson, this is going to be one of the Jazz album’s of the year!

After hustling my way past the bouncer and a cluster of inebriated Long Island party girls, I found myself in the VIP section of Webster Hall, where I was able to stare at the yellow brick road that led to an emerald city perched upon a hilltop. Laid before this backdrop was a cluttered stage with spots for eight musicians and two vocalists. This was the world of Edward Sharpe and his beautifully bizarre Magnetic Zeros. A traveling circus of sorts that specialize not in entertaining the masses, but in placing them on a pathway to musical transcendence

If you’ve got a touch of “disco droop” here’s some 12” madness from the golden era as lovingly extended by master DJ Walter Gibbons.

So if you can imagine giving jazz legend a 70th birthday party and got a load of his favourite International music stars to join in on ten of his favourite songs, The Imagine Project would be such a star studded present!

Still coming to grips with Michael Leonhart & The Avramina 7 debut album Seahorse And The Storyteller? Now the summer of love 2010 is here, time to give it another go - Peace.

When I first heard about this one, I admit that I was a little excited and the combination of Lloyd Miller and The Heliocentrics is just that, excitement.

When I were a lad, going to the Baths was the highlight of the week but this week Baths is the album of the week; and probably a lot longer than that!

There’s no argument that Earth Wind & Fire were a great band with a great live act with a great catalogue of albums so you know that the latest The Greatest Hits compilation is great to say the least.

Hey it’s Sunday Nite and Robbie Vincent and Greg Edwards have provided the soundtrack to the weekend and it’s time to Disco Discharge with some Disco Boogie!

In the long tradition of not judging CDs by the cover, Grammy nominee and esteemed jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon has re-interpreted the jazz vocal of the great American Songbook.

It’s Friday so this is the time of the week that we get up and party. This week we are guided by the Nervous Nitelife signing David Tort who is going to be spinning House this summer somewhere near you.

Hard to believe that their worldwide hit ‘La Bamba’ came out in 1987 but they are there still going strong and their new album Tin Can Trust sees them all set for their Hop Farm Festival set this weekend.

Last year we showed Build An Ark some Love (Part 1) and leader Carlos Niño showed us some love back. Now it’s time to do it all over again as Love (Part 2) is now in the air!

You’ll have spotted that there’s loads of fantastic CDs coming out at the moment but it wouldn’t be right to miss out on the latest intricate beauty by King Britt; so we won’t!

You wait 30 years for the first Bustin’ Out compilation and then, like a London bus, before you know it, Vol.2 is upon us with 15 more killer New Wave To New Beat tunes solely from 1982.

It’s nearly two decades since Sun Ra left this planet but he is still constantly in our thoughts and is a relevant today as ever, hence the latest re-issue by Kindred Spirit of this classic album The Antique Black.

Dexter Gordon’s American Classic is as cool as the cover and now re-mastered, it’s better than ever.

Can you image one of the most celebrated soprano voices hanging out with Arcade Fire, The Mars Volta, Muse or Leonard Cohen? Neither can I nor even doing cover versions for that matter but she has (done cover versions that is) with this new album called A Dark Hope; how could you resist?

Those of you that keep an eye on Stone Thow Records web site will know all about this project already but definitely worth catching up with what Dublab regulars can produce with a 100 old records at a mere $1 each.

Bachelors Of Science are a duo based in San Francisco and after their successful Science Fiction debut, Warehouse Dayz is well up to speed.

This will come as a bit of a surprise to most, but Ananésworld is possibly the most out there album of the year so far and it’s going to make her a bigger star than she already is!

The Modern Deep Left Quartet is the future of modern deep left music; as performed by the Cobblestone Jazz, this is real FLY Global Music - fantastic is an understatement!

Simon Green (aka Bonobo) is another artist on his fourth album and everybody has said that it is his most accomplished album to date; the magnificent Black Sands is proof indeed that it is.

A profoundly moving documentary about a miscarriage of justice so grave that it is hard to imagine it could have happened in modern times, let alone accept that is continues to this day

Daedelus puts ‘em up in the Marquis of Queensbury way, travels the high seas and sorts out some history with a fabulous collage of sound; this is Daedelus at his best!

Jaunty world pop tune with a lasting legacy

Now the Winter Olympics are over and the Canada picks up the most gold medals ever, what are the chances of the return of Cobblestone Jazz with a new EP?

Coming outta Ottawa, Canada, this group is the modern embodiment of soul-jazz Afro funk and I’m a little guilty that we haven’t given them as much credit as they deserve in the past; lets put that to rights with their new album Rising Sun!

If you’ve not got into the new album yet, try the first single taken from I’m New Here, it’s Gil Scott-Heron and the devil!

Asseteria! is the Sunday night bash for New York’s most house hungry crowd of hedonists where Chriss Vargas can DJ for hours, even as long as it takes to get to Uranus!

So you think you know an artist, especially one that made his name in the post bop/free jazz era? Well here’s Don Cherry with a world-funk fusion that’s as Here & Now as it was in the mid 70s!

A special release in the Atlantic Masters series of re-issues as this is Joe Zawinul’s debut solo album from the mid 1960s - Money In The Pocket you could say.

Bustin’ Out is set in a time went the punks limelight was dimming but in its place, the independent DIY label ethic took hold and a whole new generation of musicians started to experiment a little deeper than 3-chord wonders.

When Gilles Peterson announced on his show “this is my favourite track from the new José James album”, it was time to wake up and pay attention as the voice of jazz is back!

There’s been a load of brilliant compilations lately but Strut have linked up with DJ History to keep ahead of the games on some mighty fine gems from a decade of experimentation.

Nommo Ogo’s psychedelic connection Across Time And Space

If you’ve been waiting for the follow up to Tom Stephan’s Asseteria! Live From New York, the latest in the ‘Nervous Nitelife’ is testiment to how his DJ set is progressing.

Even if you’ve never heard of John Morales, the subtitle of this massive compilaton NYC Underground Disco Anthems + Previously Un-Released Exclusive Salsoul Mixes should give you a clue that this is a very tasty release.

Following the worldwide success of Deadmau5 (aka Joel Zimmerman) last year, with more big gigs coming up in the UK next month, here’s the second edition of the At Play album.

Once again, the house of Nervous Records brings us the finest in New York’s nitelife with this stunning collection by DJ/Producers Peter Bailey & Richie Santana.

Fans of Isaac Hayes’ Shaft soundtrack will recognise the title, but would they recognose this version from Brighton’s Richie Phoe?

Canada’s Queen of Sleaze turns up to the party with the most appropriately entitled anthem ever; she is white, trashy and (not naturally) blonde!

“Would you go and see a band called The Boombombs?” I don’t think so either but I would like to see The So So Glos - especially as their new mini-album has the promising title of Tourism / Terrorism.

If you’ve ever been moved by a J-Rocc mix, if you’ve ever been amazed by a sample expert like Madlib, The Clonious or Kira Neris, if you just like lots of different types of music, The Music Scene is the album of the year.

When Gilles Peterson played a new Osunlade track on his show last night, you could almost hear the folks say, “is that Osunlade?”

Frankie Knuckles and Eric Kupper are back on form with a ‘Come Back’ by Sophia May that’s big enough to make anyone nervous.

For some folks Christmas can’t come soon enough but here’s something that will even make bar humbugs happy as Strut get some real groovin’ tunes on this brand new compilation.

With the 30th Anniversary tribute album reminding us how good ZE Records was, this Re-edit package show us how good the label (and the music) still is - Strut do it again.

If Rupa and her April Fishes love to whip up a carnivalesque frenzy on their records, in the flesh their approach is even more sweaty and joyful.

It’s time to be nervous as Frankie Knuckles is in the mood to get some Motivation and you will too when you here this!

In these days of global warming apocalypse warnings, what we need is a Solar Life Raft for emergencies, luckily DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek are here to rescue us.

With a live show at Cargo on the 19th November, it’s time we had some love from the magnificent Build An Ark; yes - yes!

Back in the day, a t-shirt with the Nervous Record label logo on it was the hipest street wear in town; thankfully the records were rather good too but is there anyone better to have a session with than Danny Krivit?

The last in the trilogy of tribute albums called Dillanthology is even more proof that James Yancey’s untimely passing was such a great loss to the world in so many respects.

Get ready to dance, here comes Rupa & the April Fishes with a follow up to debut album eXtraOrdinary Rendition.

So we finally come to the last in this Disco Discharge set and perhaps Gay Disco & Hi NRG is the epitomy of the three previous versions rather than a genre inself; but if it is, it’s time of come out of the disco closet.

We know Mixmag loves Future Disco and the like, but you can at least double that when it comes to Claude VonStroke. So can you imagine what they think of his latest album, Bird Brain?

Anti-Pop Consortium are back with a new label and a new album to light up hip-hop with some Fluorescent Black.

Jeb Loy Nichols is an artist, writer and musician living a sustainable existence in Wales. He’s also just released an incredible album full of moving, delicate, beautifully arranged songs sung in his seductive and distinctive southern American accent

You will know that Breakestra is the L.A. funk band “orchestra” that have been blowing up for over 10 years and their latest release is their debut album for the fantastic label Strut; and these guys will funk up from Dusk Till Dawn.

Since Impossible Ark Records started, not only have they shown a flair for modern jazz, they’ve also been very adventurous but no more so that with the strange faith and practice of Jeb Loy Nichols.

Here’s one of the premier jazz pianists is an unusually setting of a trio on an album with a load of cover versions (and a daft title) but this is not old news.

Calexico’s guitarist records solo album with his mates in Arizona and it sounds as good as you’d expect, a fantastic debut for DePedro!

Now anyone who thought they heard Deborah’s vocals on the Gilles Peterson show the other week would be spot on, but now you’ve got the chance to hear as well as see, The Light.

Admittedly the cover is a little scary and for an album that starts with a track called ‘Army Of Misfits’, can previous outings with R&B royalty like The Roots, J*Davey, Erkyah Badu and Common (to name just a few), find love rather than war on this new album from The Rebel Yell?

Alarm Will Sound are a 20-member group described by the New York Times “one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American music scene,” so with a debut release on the Nonesuch label, a/rhythmia was an essential listen this month.

Tired of lugging those 12s around in your box? Need a handy CD with all your favourite R.E.-Edits on plus an exclusive new track? R.E.-Edits Volumes One To Five is just what you need!

Luaka Bop started life as the pet record label of David Byrne as an outlet for his Brasilian musical discoveries but it wasn’t long before it developed into one of the finest independent record labels on the planet, defying pigeon holes, albeit with a fondness for all things Brasilian, to become a home for interesting music rather than any particular genre.

This is such an all-winner! It’s been a “go to” track since this time last year with plays on Gilles Peterson’s Radio 1 so it’s definitely about time we had some nightlife!

Robert Glasper plays with a dynamism which is quite engaging. Not a dynamic style in the technical sense but a playing with a certain joie de vivre or a lighting of the keys as his large hands stoke little fires on the black and whites

A swamp-ape from panhandle Florida, Michael Johnson arrived in Philadelphia to teach music technology at a downtown arts university; thankfully he had enough spare time to work on a number of projects including Ape School.

Well, that’s a very good question but have Funktransplant got the answer?

Cromagnon on ESP! That’s what I thought but it’s not Cro-magnon so the question now is, has extremes of NY psych-no-wave of 1969 lasted the test of time?

It’s been some time since we’ve had some proper old skool space-beat hip hop so it was brilliant to find that ESL’s latest signings, Ancient Astronauts have finally got their spaceship shape for the debut album with a collection of legendary old and new friends as they are to answer.

Charlie GIllett scoops up yet again the tracks you loved but never got round to owning and those that would otherwise have entirely slipped past you unnoticed like so many logs floating down the Niger in the middle of the night

When your Dad is as well known and in the public eye as much as Kyle Eastwood’s, what can you do to when those are such huge footsteps to follow? What about being a professional jazz bassist?

The Mars Volta are on tour in Europe promoting the new album at the moment and what do you think, the same as the last one?

This album explores the combination of the traditions of flamenco, comtemporay jazz and orchestral arrangements; could that possibily work?

They both possess impressive CVs when it comes to collaborations, and this charming, eloquent mix of Indian and US roots music will surely take its place amongst the most satisfyingly creative results for both artists

This album was the talk at Phonica Records this week, well whilst I was there at any rate, so what’s Konrad Black up to in Berlin?

“Consious rap failed us” he proclaims at the start of the latest album by Busdriver but as one of our favourite rappers, Jhelli Beam is just what we need to re-affirm our faith.

The self-proclaimed “Bluesy, dusty, personal and masterful” debut album by the duo, The Lone Wolf is about to drop to widespread beat head approval.

“Big tunes include the skanking 8bit cod reggae pop perversion of ‘Check Out My Keychain” so you’d I’d Have To Be High not to want a remix 12”?

After the success of Light In The Attic’s first official reissue of Cold Fact, an album co-produced by Motown’s Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore and featuring members of legendary Motown players The Funk Brothers, they’ve dipped back into the Rodriquez back catalogue for another ‘lost’ gem, Coming From Reality.

Matching up a compilation of tracks from the first 20 releases of Finders Keepers Records with ace producer, DJ and all-round Dublab expert The Gaslamp Killer is not only a good idea, its now a fantastic CD!

It’s the bloke with the ears and they are so tuned into what moves the big room, he’s back with the vocal talents of Billy Newton-Davis to give you 12 inches of all you ever wanted in your dreams!

Whilst the dubstep forums have had this one on their radar for a while, there’s much more to this album than you’d usually find in a Croydon basement.

A debut single from the new project by Annabel (lee) featuring Richard E is out on Monday and it’s well up to their high standards

Returning to his jazz and acoustic roots, this talented composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist has just recorded his best album to-date.

When you’d mention “Boomshadow” in the circle of Nino Moschella and his friends it was an in-joke for a fictional super hero to come and save anybody from whatever the problem was; and if you’re problem is a lack of proper funk and soul, his sophmore album Boom Shadow is here to save you.

If you told me a few weeks ago that we would be reviewing an album that “draws on a cultural heritage that took in My Bloody Valentine alongside hip hop and which is heavily influenced by various forms of electronic music, psychedelic soul and rock” I’d have said, I don’t think so; but Yppah’s second album is not one to dismiss so lightly.

The mellow side-project of Guillermo Scott Herren (better known as Prefuse 73) and this is his first Savath y Savalas release on Stones Throw Records and this llama is up in the Spanish mountains having a bit of a chill-out.

With a little help from their friends, the Easy Star All-Stars’ latest album takes on The Beatles much respected Sgt. Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band for their own brand of retro reggae re-make.

The new single by Two Fingers and their cohort Sway is the crazy, crazy ‘That Girl’ that’s going off the rails with a couple of heavy remixes.

If you’re not familar with the “hammock sound” of guitar guru JJ Cale, roll with his latest album Roll On and be prepared to mellow out.

Everybody has an opinion on Lady Sov and most seem to be bad; does the best known under dog deserve to be so universally slated? Let’s have a look at the pieces of this jigsaw.

Loads of people are saying that the inspired pairing on Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics have produced their favourite album of the year and I’m joining that happy band of folks; this is sensational!

When it comes to Afro Latin grooves and music of black origin Rich Medina and Bobbito are two of New York’s top tastemakers. They are also long time friends and DJ collaborators so you know this compilation is going to be “un poco caliente”

What will they think of plundering next? But wait a minute, this was the time of High School and Collegiate Jazz, Funk, Soul and Psychedelia and it’s well worth diggin’ man!

Yppah (pronounced “Yippah”) is a Mexican-American from Texas aka Joe Corrales, Jr. and he’s back on Ninja Tune with an brand new EP prior to the new album coming out and it’s stunning!

On paper this is all wrong. A government funded programme in response to social unrest in Harlem, a group of mostly non-Latins making a Latin record, a huge cast of non-professional musicians. And what did they produce? Only one of the top 5 Latin records of all time

Thunderhiest (aka MC Isis and Grahm Zilla) jerked it with the last single and now get even more club friendly with loads of cow bells as this is ‘Nothing 2 Step 2’.

Super group Two Fingers (Amon Tobin and Joe “Doubleclick” Chapman) featuring UK Mobo winning artist Sway have been busy distorting the sound of hip hop for the debut album Two Fingers

Tah Mac set the tone with previous singles as “the next Kanye” prepares to hit the album charts around the world and not just in Tahland.

You can’t write anything about Gomez without mentioning that their debut album Bring It On won the Mercury Music Prize but 10 years on, A New Tide finds them on a new label and is a bit of a fresh start.

You can’t really give Carlos Nino too much praise as he’s gone and done it again with a little help from some of his closest friends, it’ll make you feel mighty high indeed!

With half a dozen of these magnificent 12ers under his belt, the king of the R.E.-Edit is still showing the rest of ‘em how to do it, a must have for every conscious DJ that knows his stuff.

Back in 1965, five upstart Americans say to themselves “Let’s Start A Beat” but these devoted monks don’t keep a vow of silence; quite the opposite!

After the fantastic reception for debut single ‘Killin Em’, the buzz for the debut XRABIT + DMG$ album has been big in the bass bin underground - Hello World is some new understand of hip hop’s future.

Tal M. Klein is back with another class 12” with an unusual guest that’s ready to crawl up ya spout!

If you still haven’t found The Long Lost, this is the place to find them in their lovely brilliance

Brooklyn-based producer Yellowtail (Hiro Awanohara) drops a very impressive 12” before the album comes out and if features one of the all-time great female singers out of Japan, no less than Monday Michiru!

It’s so good to have the return of Kero One and with the ever impressive Ben Westbeech on the latest single out on Plug, this is just our type of hip-hop

Talk about double take when I first saw this one in Universal Sounds, a new Carl Craig album on Deutsche Grammophon! And on closer inspection, it’s a double act with Moritz Von Oswald with recomposed music by Maurice Ravel and Modest Mussorgsky! It all looked too good to be true.

Nobody wants to get left alone at night, especially not Toro Y Moi so they’ve got some Brooklyn friendly night time people on the remix.

A new recruit to the Ninja Tune family, don’t be put off by the cover, this guy’s musical pallet is so much more than mere 2-tone.

Instrusions’ ‘Little Angel’ featuring the vocals of Paul St. Hilaire is a heavenly track that’ll linger long in the memory.

“One of us could be somewhere. Some of us could be elsewhere. All of us could be everywhere. UBIQUITY is being somewhere, elsewhere and everywhere - always”, can you dig it?

Friend of the stars, especially ex-Sugababe and Celebrity Big Brother contestant Mutya Buena, Tah Mac releases another big single from his forthcoming album Welcome To Tahland.

You don’t have to was born and raised in Detroit to know this is a great album as Harmonic 313 is none other than Mark Pritchard!

The best bit of The Mars Volta is Omar Rodriquez Lopez’ guitar so his solo album has got to be a bit special? You can bet your last thru penny bit it is.

If you thought John Coltrane was only about A Love Supreme, think again as here are five other reason why he is regarded as the one and only true spirit of jazz.

It would be very amiss if you missed ‘Amiss’ by the pair of lovers called The Long Lost.

With mates from the hip-hop, crunk and B-more scenes Diplo’s reputation spread and he has now worked full time with every ‘name’ you could possibly think of as all he wants is Decent Work For Decent Pay.

The latest Northern Faction is another great compilation album of modern dubby electronic downtempo grooves that clears out any recessionary tenancies and gives us a more balanced view of things

“Oh Yeah!” The Ugly Ducklings that are Einstein, Andy & Dizzy are back with a new album which finds them a little bit older and a bit more reflective; but if you love old skool hip hop and drum breaks, “Say, Yeah!”

Now you’ve probably been thinking that Nicola Conte has been quiet of late but over the past 2 years, instead of bashing out 12s on Schema, he’s been working on his latest album and it’s definitely been worth the wait.

Somewhat of a clumsy name and title here but it’s time to take that first step on the road to some hot Brooklyn based soul-jazz-funk as it’s not to late to catch up with this Worldwide All-winner top 20 album.

Alice Russell has been underground for so long you being to wonder whether she’ll ever find her pot of golden recognition at the end of the musical rainbow; lets hope Pot Of Gold finally does it for her at it’s her best yet!

This peanuts is as in the cartoon series as this CD is sub-titled, ‘A Retrospective Of The Charlie Brown TV Themes’; get ready to jig around the piano to a little bit of jazz.

Forever struggling to sift out the Christmas cheese from the jingle bells it was an act of musical kindness that Verve got their Unmixed / Remixed series into the festive spirit of things.

Ten years ago, with the help of Juan de Marcos González and support of Ry Cooder, a bunch of elderly Cubans dusted off their instruments, cleared their throats and, with seemingly effortless ease, delivered arguably the most acclaimed album in world music history

Need2Soul is a London based club-night and the Need2Soul label set out in 2005 to release tracks that rocked their decks. For the new V.02 double CD compilation they’ve called up a heavyweight DJ and young(ish) pretender to get mixing and it’s definitely FLY!

The guys from St Paul’s / Minneapolis are back with their distinctive sound. Stokley, Lawrence, O’Dell, Ricky, Jeffrey and Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave performing some session drumming on the album

If you like Jazz, check out this album on Blue Note ‘Invisible Cinema’ from Aaron Parks.

To celebrate the launch of the new Daedelus web site, Ninja Tunes have got a 12” and download packages all ready to go on sale.

If you want to know what Deadmau5 did before his hit world domination, At Play is his early works repackaged and it’s easy to see how he got global recognition in such a relatively short space of time.

The first recording of the ongoing collaboration between the legendary drummer and the innovative Cuban group is a testament to the success of fusion music.

MC Isis and Grahm Zilla together are Thunderhiest are the leaders in ‘Rave Rap’ and ‘Jerk It’ is the clubbers No. 1 pick of the moment.

By far the best thing to come out of Washington for a very long time, this outernational mashup of Afrobeat, dub and hip hop is firing political comment on thumping beats

Another little gem from ESP Disk. The Levitts are in fact a musical family about whom not a great deal has been written it would seem. Perhaps their habit of jumping from one genre to another was too much for audiences to build loyalty at the end of the sixties

To mark the 40th year of his recording history Taj Mahal releases the self-depricatingly titled Maestro.

By 1971, The Supremes had managed to successfully reinvent and reinvigorate a creatively flagging group with two records: Right On (1970) and New Ways, But Love Stays (1970). With a string of hit singles behind them, their third Frank Wilson produced LP, Touch, promised to capitalize on the critical successes of the previous two records

Before Obama, Tiger Woods and even Martin Luther-King was an African American hero whose stature is undiminished sixty years later. Bird may have been an alcoholic junkie in and out of pawn shops for most of his too short life but he was also the musical lightning rod of black America, a man whose influence was so great it seems hard to believe he existed at all

Her last album was one of the finest releases of the year, so how could she follow that?

Last Step’s debut album was the perfect match of leftfield electronic disco and here is the follow up, 1961.

Not content with making the album of the year, Daedelus (aka Alfred Weisberg-Roberts Darling) has found time to get together with his wife Laura Darling to serve us an exquiste taste of love of woebegone times; this is brilliant!

Imperial Pressure is a highly impressive production of consciousis hip-hop and soul-funk-jazz-rock that’s not only available on CD but is also in a massive live nine piece band and they’re coming to the Jazz Cafe.

Osunlade is known for it’s deep house music and when Djini Brown sent him the tapes for Afro-Bionic, even he must have thought this is something special; like Superman?

Consider the controversy around the lives of some of the great artists:

The collaboration of a couple of maverick multi-instrumentalist is bound to produce something special and Clutch Of The Tiger is certainly that.

Recorded at the height of hippiedom and produced by none other than (the still) living legend, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, this is the first time these tracks have been released!

I’ve got nothing but love for Stephanie McKay as she comes back with the ‘difficult’ second album but no worries as this soul diva tells it like it is.

A debut album inspired by a solo journey into the desert wilderness some years ago, John Shannon is the American Mystic modern folk singer, songwriter, virtuoso acoustic guitarist you’ve been waiting for.

Out on the appropriately named Audio Dregs label, Logos For Love is a collection of 13 small electronic cinematic ‘interludes’.

We’ve always been fans of Wagon Repair, especially last years’ Cobblestone Jazz project, so when we spotted Roots And Wire we knew it would be something special.

Regular readers will know that we’ve got a soft spot for the record label Obliqsound, none more so than when they bring out a new jazz album by an new talent.

Rudresh Mahanthappa is a New York based jazz alto saxophonist and composer who follows a rich tradition of ‘Indo-Jazz’ with this new album appropriatly entitled Kinsmen; or does he?

Byard has started his career in the mid 60s working with Sun Ra and McCoy Tyner but reached his funky peak with this album on the obscure Palm label, so it’s with great anticipation we find Kindred Spirits are reissuing it this week.

Filmaker Cyrus Sutton joined forces with the mighty Ubiquity Records to make a documentary about surfing. Obviously, such a project needs a soundtrack and who better to pick than their very own Shawn Lee and a trio of Ozzies, Band Of Frequencies, Low Pressure Sound System and Afto Dizzi Act.

We know Nobody as West Coast hip-hop leftfield mate of Daedelus and Mars Volta, so when he teams up with songstress Niki Randa, you know this release is nothing like the run of the mill of lesser folks.

If the name Koushik sounds familiar, it’s because he’s infrequently been turning up on compliations on Stones Throw for years but the long awaited for proper album is nearly over, Out My Window drops September 29th!

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.

It’s time for a history lesson of West Coast hip-hop and electro by Prof. P.B. Wolf as he investigates the often overlooked chapter that features the Arabian Prince.

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-American R&B, the music was fresh, young and funky

Ever since Ninja Tunes released ‘Keepintime - The Remixes’ and the DVD, this has been one of the projects of the decade.

Ubiquity dropped one space to second in this year’s Worldwide Awards but they certainly put up a fight to try and keep their top spot.

The short answer is no and then yes. Easily the most perceptive and stimulating critique of jazz for a very long time indeed. Nicholson argues convincingly that jazz has ossified in the states under the iron grip of the neo-cons of jazz while away from home it has blossomed and flourished

Richard Searling is a soul DJing legend and who better to compile an album called Music From The Soul?

Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980) was a celebrated African American painter and evangelist who spent most of her life living and working in New Orleans. In 1969 she laid down what would be her only album, a potent mix of a capella and tambourine hymns that would become one of gospel music’s neglected treasures. A couple of years ago, the Rope-A-Dope imprint acquired the master rights to these recordings and enlisted renowned producer King Britt to reinterpret Sister G’s music

No ordinary guy, The Anthology charts the story of how Joe Bataan’s album became a label and the label became a genre and the genre became a legend

Robert Johnson is one of the few musicians I would probably have killed for to get an interview with, the stuff of true legend, and possessed of a Faustian reputation few can match.

Written as a ‘lost’ soundtrack to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Puerto Muerto’s evocative and sparse arrangements on Songs of Muerto Country are as menacing and disturbed as Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic American horror flick, while thankfully managing to avoid the cacophonic screeches and cymbals clashes that graced the film.

Carl Craig’s skills as a DJ and musician are widely recognised. As one of the Detroit techno founders his latest mix CD has been hailed as, “Easily the best mix CD of the year for me, in fact, one of the best I think I have ever heard.” That’s probably a little strong but it’s hard to find fault with it.

Fans of the Fort Knox label are going to be a little surprised by their latest release, a jazzy samba with some serious remix action

Following last year’s Hip Hop Love Soul, Nicci Cheek presents no fewer than 15 tracks of offbeat, funky and intelligent hip hop but is it jazz? Not really but who cares if it works?

Another stonker of a 12” from Re:Edit out of the Chicago club scene.

Drawing inspiration from Inuit throat singing and traditional music, Canadian François Couture has produced an album of ethnographic ambient

This album comes along with the ‘eagerly awaited follow up to big album’ sticker. Especially true for fans like DJ Gilles Peterson, “He tells the best stories.” And then a few weeks later, on the Worldwide Winners 2, “Just the big tunes, Dwele!”

West Coast electro whiz, Sutekh is going to be born again this October. Not literally of course, but The Leaf Label have repackaged all his best Remix work to stuff into two handy CDs (or two separate double vinyl gatefold sleeve LPs if you prefer) with artwork by General Working Group

Ruthy Brown. As low down and straight-talking as Bessie Smith and as funky and full-on as Aretha Franklin, in the 22nd Century, when they finally get to tell the story of post war music straight, she might finally get her dues. Shit, people will be doing degrees on this remarkable woman

Sue Steward continues rifling through the Fania back catalogue for Rough Guide; this time she brings us a fresh selection from the Mambo King himself Tito Puente. With over a hundred albums to choose from, getting down to 21 tracks is no mean feat and any selection will inevitably be partial but we are treated to a wide selection of styles and collaborators including La Lupe and Celia Cruz

Anyone that sees the never ending re-runs of MTV2’s 100 Greatest Albums, keep an eye open for No. 80, Endtroducing… by DJ Shadow with the video to ‘Midnight In A Perfect World’ directed by Brian Cross.

Daedelus was good enough to give us a guide to #2 that obviously followed ‘Dublab presents In The Loop #1’ released on Plug Research last year. Hectic steps back in time for a re-review.

“You have to be careful what you say to Carlos, because he makes it happen!” says, Dwight Trible and that’s the truth…

Small, plucky, defiantly British and trying to outdo ‘our American friends’ at their own game, Herbaliser conjure up images and sounds from the seminal film The Long Good Friday to fight off an imaginary invasion force in Take London — or maybe they are the enemy within ready to fling open the gates at a signal from the invading force? This time the visiting American is not an old gangster but New York’s finest Jean Grae

One Self is DJ Vadim (Russia/UK), Yarah Bravo (Sweden/Brazil) and Blu Rum 13 (US) — a veritable United Nations of funky hip hop. So what happens when three independent forces join for a common project? If this LP is anything to go by, the answer is a record you just love to love

Next in the series of Hectic’s reviews of experimental, abstract, downtempo, electronic, underground hip hop sees the future as Constant Evolution following on from Exquisite Corpse by Daedelus, Fear Of A Black Tangent by Busdriver and recent releases by the (thankfully) ridiculously prolific Ammoncontact

Listening to Madagascar is like being chased through Johnson’s Bartholomew Fair, by the grotesques and the sinister butchers of the carnival, and finding yourself in a place where the rules don’t exactly fit anymore.

Forming a perfect pair with his SFJAZZ Collective project, Momentum is the latest expression of what Redman calls his, “electric, groove-based thing.”

Precious, polished and fresh tales spun over old-school funky beats… last year’s single ‘A Request’ was one of the top sellers for Ubiquity and so they shrewdly sped to sign Ohmega Watts for his debut album, appropriately named, The Find

Feisty, fresh, rooted and open, this is a superior record from a group of contemporary jazz luminaries that includes Joshua Redman and old hand Bobby Hutcherson. The 'SF' refers to San Francisco and SFJAZZ is an annual project that brings together emerging and established names for a series of concerts themed around an inspirational figure in jazz.

Whilst the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has over a twenty-year history, it took Chicago's Deeper Soul Recordings remix releases to bring them to a whole new audience.

Sounding almost like a naturally flowing folk band plucking away at perfected instruments driven by nature's desires and passions, The Lickets deliver a desirably tripped-out record of high standards.

A true trip-hop record with severely mellow tones and jazzy sounds.

The most-played album of the year so far at Hectic Villas has been the Exquisite Corpse by Daedelus. The West Coast beat controller and producer has set the benchmark for a style with no imitators with this, his "most complete and baffling record to date."

When Celia Cruz died in 2003, the Latin world went into mourning. Incredible scenes were witnessed in Miami and at her funeral in New York. Celia was always the voice of Latin America but she also represented the dream. A poor black girl with little more than a great voice and a knack of being in the right place at the right time had become immeasurably famous, respected as an artist and conspicuously rich. This is her story in song -- or at least fragments of it.

The best soulful hip hop album I have heard in so long I think I might have Alzheimer's. At times, thumping, soulful and intelligent (and usually all three at once), it is hard to imagine a more satisfying hip hop / soul album coming out this year.

A cross-fertilisation of black US music, most notably soul and R'n'B, with Latin beats, boogaloo came from the New York areas of Spanish Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx, emerging for a few intense years at the end of the sixties. This CD charts the course the music took to make Latin mainstream.

Luaka Bop's Bomaye Compilation plays like the soundtrack to an almost perfect summer day with nothing better to do than let the beats wash over you.

Latin Soul Brother Number One is back after a break of 20 years with a new album. The songs were all written and arranged by Daniel Collas but the vocals are unmistakably Joe Bataan and it's great to hear him again as if the last two (actually make that three) decades had never happened.

With Movimento, Brazillian nylon string guitarist Ed Johnson and his band Novo Tempo have made a perfect summer album.

Currently the hottest CDr under the decks in Detroit is rumoured for a 12" release as we speak. Often 30 years behind the cutting edge, Hectic gets investigating what Detroit's groovers will be grooving to in the next few weeks.

After an eight year wait, Madeleine Peyroux's beautiful second album is a thing of careful, rather than careless love and if the limpid voice now sounds less like Billie Holiday's, the style is, if anything, closer.

Pete Carney's Orange Alert is no ordinary acid jazz album. The Chicago-based composer/saxophonist is socially and politically active (he runs a music school for underprivileged kids) and his new record is an absorbing meditation on America at war.

Seven years ago, Rough Guides published The Rough Guide to Cajun & Zydeco. Now the bluesy Louisiana Creole accordion music gets its own release. Driving, funky and downright dirty, Zydeco will have you popping your fingers and shuffling your feet.

Dirty Laundry: The Soul of Black Country is a country music album. The sound and words are familiar -- fiddles, phrasing, pain-filled stories -- but the voices you hear are black and what they bring to the songs give the image of country a whole new twist.

I listened to this one while mopping the floor of the kitchen. The place was full of the smell of the chicken soup I'd put on earlier and the mopping slipped into the slow and easy rhythms of this excellent guitar-bass-drums combo. There's something comforting about guitar and rhythm section and the clarity of the three instruments finding a perfect internal balance.

Did my heart lift when I saw a collaboration between a Western guitarist and a Tibetan nun in the post awaiting review? No, it did not. And yet, I feel curiously charmed.

Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare and Bill Laswell: that is a heavyweight team if ever there was one and here they pull in collaborators to put down some dark, dark tunes. Deep bass exploration.

At last, some earthy unmanufactured music! Gifted New York saxophonist Ada Rovatti offers up jazz at its most appealing, and traditional fans won't be disappointed either.

With an encouraging image, and cool unfussy photography on the cover of Leonard's debut album, it all smacked of a groovy jazz outfit that didn't have to try too hard. But one should never judge a book (or CD) by its cover...

Brooklyn-based drum and bass mavericks ph10 describe themselves as the 'Penn and Teller of live PA'. Clearly not taking themselves too seriously, Helmutvision, their first full-length CD in over two years is quite a showcase, not just for their trademark humour, but also their refreshing talent with more than a little social comment thrown in.

Promising a blend of soul and jazz on this, her debut album, and having previously been compared to the likes of Sade and Nina Simone, Mia Miata had a lot to live up to, and for this reviewer at least, it was a little hard to swallow...

Lhasa is unclassifiable not because she mixes a few styles together -- although she does that -- but because she is like a quantum particle. The very act of observation throws the experiment.

It's Saturday morning and instead of getting out and about, I am glued to my sofa listening to this fabulous release. Chief Xcel has found a perfect formula for mixing Fela.

For my money, this latest expedition into the vaults of Warner and Atlantic is better than the original, fine though that was. Worth the price of the CD alone is Keith Jarrett's jazz metal masterpiece, Mortgage on my Soul (Wah Wah) -- powered by Wah Wah bass and showcasing pianist Jarrett on the soprano sax.

A good time fusion of populist Latin crossover styles delivered with passion but not enough of the good stuff to go round on this release.

Set to blow up big time, Josh One has followed his successful release 'Contemplation' and the 'Grey Skies' EP with a blunted hip hop album that reminds you of Krush and Shadow but has its own new sound.

Acid jazz, trip hop, eclectro - today's label is tomorrow's rope to be hung with. 'Simply Good Music' is one way of trying to slip the noose. I remember the first releases to come out of Giant Step many years ago and a few had the left-field down home funkiness that this collection successfully explores and it is all the more welcome for that.

You've probably heard Toots Thielemans' harmonica in various places, probably without knowing it. The veteran Belgian has played and recorded with everyone from Benny Goodman to Caetano Veloso, via Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones and Billy Joel.

This is Khan's follow up to his book on Miles' A Kind of Blue. Significantly thicker than its predecessor, it is in fact a pretty full biography of Trane but chronologically warped to focus most of its energy on the three years from 1961's My Favourite Things to 1964's recording of A Love Supreme.

Avant-garde jazz fest featuring Chick Corea (piano), Pat Metheny (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto-sax), Anthony Braxton (alto-sax) and Miroslav Vitous (bass) in 1981. This concert celebrates 10 years of the Creative Music Studio (CMS) founded by Ornette Coleman to explore new forms and to attempt to escape them altogether.

Released after a quarter of a century locked away in a vault somewhere, this is previously unseen footage of the "Godfather of Self-Appointed Title's" 1979 comeback tour.