This album really is a trip to a sunny afternoon at a Festival of your choice with tracks by some current favourites including Quiet Village (I did say ‘Broken Promises’ was one of those Big Chill ambient dreamscapes), Recloose and Pop Levi.

But this trip of soulful funked-out folk is all about names that are new, like Choir Of Young Believers with a cover of Evil Death Machine’s ‘Things I Stole’. From the name you might suspect this is some extreme black metal thing, but the original isn’t bad either and this follows the opener, Nikola Grandjean’s guitar/vocal ‘The First Picture’. Well in keeping with the spirit of things, the oddly named Boom Clap Bachelors, produce a strange multi-layered synth-pop called ‘Combiners’ whilst Woolfy vs. Projections get chilled out drunk on ‘Absynth’ (it’s all about the preparation I’m told).

Pop Levi’s track was a bonus on the ‘Never Never Love’ single and it sounds perfect in this garden of secret love. Recloose’s all-winner ‘Deeper Waters’ with Joe Dukie is the pick off the new album Perfect Timing and Eva Be’s secret lover mix is an idea version for this album. Talking of ideal females, Feist features on a ‘I Feel Electric’ and if you remember Sparky’s Magic Piano you’ll be confused by the Owusu Remix of Thief’s ‘Down, Down’.

Savath & Savalas is better known as the mellow Latin/psychedelic side-project of NY/Barcelona based Prefuse73 and ‘Estrellas De Dos Caras’ is typical of what he does. Whilst in this general area, on the highlights front, Brent Cash ‘This Sea, These Waves’ gentle samba-folk is what this album is all about. Too cheerful for Nobody’s Western Water Music Vol. II but could have made the Under The Sun surf movie soundtrack (both albums on Ubiquity Records), Now for those keeping up to date with what’s going on at Ubiquity, Cluchy Hopkins is mysterious new signing. He makes jazz inspired instrumental hip-hop and Shawn Lee is a big fan; ‘Song For Wolfie’ is the cinematic version of ‘Fragment Zero (and I Keep Hearing)’; that means it’s brilliant!

Now you may remember Stee Downs and his Formula? Well, with the benefit of hindsight, what an obvious signing for Sonar Kollektive and ‘Destruction Of Ourselves’ ends this CD. And we’re promised an album before the end of the year (looks like time to update our feature on Stee and Scribble).

This compilation series’ love of a mixture of genres makes these albums what they are. Even if you know some of the tracks, new sequencing (via the Jazzanova team) creates a different dynamic musical universe; particularly ‘This Sea, These Waves’ into ‘Broken Promises’ or my new favourite track ‘Song For Wolfie’ into ‘Destruction Of Ourselves’. And who is Lars Bartkuhn? We need to know as ‘Harmony Of Sphere’ is out there!

With Jazzonova (the band) having decided to move to a major label for the release of their latest single, ‘Let Me Show Ya’, I hope that they’ll still have time to keep compiling more Secret Loves in the future as they just seem to get better and better.

P.S. Another great cover by Maria Tackmann.

Reviewed: Various - Secret Love 5 (Sonar Kollektiv) Cat. No: SK196CD Release date: September 2008 Compiled by Jazzanova
Tracklisting:
1 Nikolaj Grandjean - The First Picture (2:06)
2 Choir Of Young Believers - Things I Stole (4:34)
3 Brent Cash - This Sea, These Waves (4:07)
4 Quiet Village - Broken Promises (5:46)
5 Recloose - Deeper Waters (Eva Be’s Seeecret Lover Remix) (3:33)
6 Pop Levi - Love You Straight (Astral Version) (3:19)
7 Crowdpleaser & Ly Sanders - Walking Home (IFXX 7” Version) (3:12)
8 Boom Clap Bachelors - Combiner (5:45)
9 Savath & Savalas - Estrellas De Dos Caras (4:31)
10 Lars Bartkuhn - Harmony Of The Spheres (5:51)
11 Woolfy vs. Projections - Absynth (5:58)
12 The Rubies Feat. Feist - I Feel Electric (Tied Eye Remix) (8:43)
13 Thief - Down, Down (Owusu Remix) (4:22)
14 Clutchy Hopkins - Song For Wolfie (4:36)
15 Stee Downes - Destruction Of Ourselves (5:23)

Links
www.jazzanova.net
www.sonarkollektiv.com
www.myspace.com/evabe
www.last.fm/music/Evil+Death+Machine
www.myspace.com/djcrowdpleaser
www.myspace.com/thelysander
www.myspace.com/prefusion1973
www.myspace.com/woolfys
www.myspace.com/thiefsonarkollektiv
www.myspace.com/owusuhannibal
www.whoisclutchyhopkins.com