House Shoes Presents - Beats!!!! The Japanese Sound!

A beat compilation by Japanese beatmakers, curated by Detroit legend House Shoes.

For this project, Chikaramanga (TRES / Giant Panda) gathered beats from across Japan, with House Shoes curating the final track selection and overseeing the artwork—in the tradition of his Street Corner Music releases.

Bringing together artists across styles, generations, and hometowns, the project reflects the depth and range of Japan’s beat scene today.

This project features 10 Japanese beatmakers, including BALLHEAD, winner of Can I Beat It? 2025, alongside globally respected artists such as BudaMunk, ill-sugi, and tajima hal, as well as Lark Chillout of the legendary crew A.Y.B.FORCE.

Also featured are ariosounds, finalist of BEAT GRAND PRIX 2023 and runner-up at Can I Beat It?; DJ SHUCREAM and Tommy Beats of LORE BEHIND, both active as SP-404MKII instructors; KAPSOUL, a Japan-born producer based in Los Angeles bridging underground scenes; and Pone, a 17-year-old beatmaker representing the next generation of Japan’s beat culture.

Bonus tracks by House Shoes and Chikaramanga (of Giant Panda).

Tracklist:
1. Ballhead - Sky's the Limit[85]
2. ariosounds - headlight hush
3. KAPSOUL - Once There Was a Time
4. BUDAMUNK - Take A Ride　　　
5. Ballhead - YDN[96]
6. Tommy Beats - Cosmic Drip
7. House Shoes - Skyfall (Bonus Track)
8. DJ SHUCREAM - Vanilla
9. tajima hal - Vortex
10. BUDAMUNK - Watchout   
11. ill-sugi - Gecco
12. Lark Chillout - No One Else
13. Pone - KING SIZE  
14. Chikaramanga - Peach Champagne (Bonus Track)

Brown Spirits - Brown Spirits 1-3

Soul Jazz Records release three new albums from the Australian psych/funk/krautrock group Brown Spirits. All three albums are super-limited one-off special coloured vinyl pressings of just 500 copies each that will all be deleted on the day of release.

These albums were originally released in long-deleted very short run-editions - either self-released in Australia or on a small German psych label. No copies of Brown Spirits #2 or Brown Spirits #3 are currently available anywhere in the world. Both of Brown Spirits two earlier releases for Soul Jazz Records, ‘Cosmic Seeds’ and ‘Solitary Transmissions’, are also sold out on vinyl.

Brown Spirits are a super-heavy psychedelic three-piece band from the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, home to an ever-growing local music scene that includes Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Tropical Fuck Storm and more.

Brown Spirits play raw energetic super-charged psychedelic rock heavily influenced by krautrock, space rock, free-jazz and deep funk music from the 1970s that gives them a truly unique and highly-addictive sound. The group record and mix their own music to ¼-inch analogue tape at home maintaining a strictly DIY-ethic. Brown Spirits are Tim Wold, Agostino Soldati and Ash Bushcombe.

Tracklist:
1. Lysergic Library
2. Kaiser-Panorama
3. Flying and Falling
4. That River Ain't For Swimming
5. Xan With Red
6. Back To Atoms
7. Another Vintage Phase
8. Precursor
9. Optokinetic Response



Tracklist:
1. Honorable Discharge
2. Parallels
3. Finite Universe
4. Mutations
5. Suite: East Meets West
6. Can Eater
7. First Sign Of Light



Tracklist:
1. Converge Collide
2. Bakelite Dashboard
3. Montage Homage
4. Express Train To Jupiter
5. Vanishing Exits
6. Tumultuous Clouds
7. Flawed Optimist
8. Hats Off To Pojama
9. Chemical Miscalculation

musclecars - Sugar Honey Iced Tea! Double Honey Pack 2 (Remixes from Mark Francis & AmFlow)

Taken from musclecars’ 2024 masterpiece album Sugar Honey Iced Tea, this Double Honey Pack Part 2 features remixes of “Tonight,” “Ha Ya! (Eternal Life),” remixed by Adam Rios, and “Water,” remixed by Mark Francis. Alongside their accompanying instrumentals, these versions take the already outstanding originals to a whole new dancefloor level, driven by bold basslines and rich encapsulations of Black music excellence.

Adam Rios and Mark Lewis are the production duo AmFlow. Mark Lewis began DJing in the mid-1980s around Newark, New Jersey, before launching the house music community platform Buttersoulcafe, built around the message: “it’s about the music.” The platform reached listeners in over 70 countries.

After returning to the local club scene in 2010 with a monthly party, Lewis moved into production and remix work, earning support from Timmy Regisford and releasing music on labels including Restricted Access and Tony Records. He later hosted the FLOW parties at Club Elevation and, in 2016, co-founded AMFLOW Music with Adam Rios. He continues to produce and DJ soulful, Afro and club-oriented sets.

Adam Rios has worked with Louie Vega on releases for Vega Records and has collaborated with artists including Erykah Badu, Cleo Sol and Koffee. His production work spans House, Broken Beat, R&B, Nu-Jazz and Soulful House.

Mark Francis is a DJ who worked alongside Timmy Regisford at New York City’s legendary Club Shelter and has developed a distinctive style built on seamless blends and rhythmic journeys for the dancefloor.

It is fitting that this five-track digital EP arrives as BBE Music celebrates 30 years of releasing innovative Black music across genres and continents.

The musclecars duo — Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield — use the Sugar Honey Iced Tea album to explore the nuances of their daily lives, environment and the Afro-American experience through sonic storytelling. These remixes of “Tonight,” “Ha Ya! (Eternal Life)” and “Water” add further chapters and perspectives to that story, making this release an essential addition to any music collection.

Sugar Honey Iced Tea: Double Honey Pack Part 2 is released as a digital EP, while the full Sugar Honey Iced Tea album is available digitally and as a double vinyl LP. 

Tracklist:
1. Water (Mark Francis Remix)
2. Water (Mark Francis Remix Instrumental)
3. Tonight (AmFlow Remix)
4. Tonight (AmFlow Remix Instrumental)
5. Ha Ya! (Eternal Life) (AmFlow Remix)

BBE - J Jazz volume 5: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan 1970-1988

BBE Music’s celebrated J Jazz compilation series reaches its fifth and final volume in early 2026, culminating in a track list that maintains the exceptionally high standard first set with volume one back in 2018.

This final volume features a selection of tracks that is as diverse as it is deep, reflecting the rich and varied Japanese jazz scene that spanned from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, a golden era of innovation and creativity. J Jazz volume 5 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden dig ever deeper into their respective record collections to reveal tracks that encompass myriad styles including white hot jazz funk fusion from Toshiyuki Honda (Eastern Legacy) and Mikio Masuda (Sonic Barrier), super rare ethnic jazz crossover by Crystal Zone - their one-off 45 promo release from 1971, Rai Rai, a deconstructed and abstract jazz classic by Yasuhiro Kohno with his solo piano rendition of My Favourite Things, and Mile and Half’s skin-tearing, shredding freak-out from their mega rare private press album. A track that is so relentless, it leaves the listener in need of oxygen and a Valium.

These hand-picked selections sit alongside other specially chosen numbers that embrace hard-driving samba (Seiichi Nakumura’s Judy’s Samba), epic head-nodding soul jazz (Masaru Imada’s World Line), psychedelic private press fusion (Aoyama Gakuin 101’s Fervor), angular post-bop tear-ups (Akia Miyazawa’s Nijimasu), intense and insistent fusion (Motohiko Hino’s Olive Step), serene cinematic pianism (Hideo Ichikawa’s On the Trade Wind) and tripped-out hallucinogenic tribal funky jazz (Masahiko Sato’s Garandoh’s Africa to Africa).

Most of the tracks on this collection are being reissued for the first time, many of them only available previously on extremely limited and mega-rare private press or independent releases. J Jazz volume 5 is a fitting end to a compilation series that helped create a new audience and appreciation of Japanese jazz.

Some of the albums the tracks are drawn from are featured in the large format book J Jazz: Modern and Free Jazz from Japan 1954-1988, by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, published by BBE Music in 2024.

With almost 7000 words of extensive sleeve notes, J Jazz volume 5 comes in a triple 180g vinyl set inside a deluxe gatefold sleeve with obi strip, and comes with a 4- page insert, with photographs from the renowned Tokyo Jazz Joints project. It is also available as a double CD and digital download.

Mastered at the Grammy-nominated Carvery Studio by Frank Merritt, this latest collection is a worthy successor to the preceding four volumes that set the bar so high. The J Jazz series is curated for BBE Music by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden. 

Tracklist:
1. AOYAMA GAKUIN 101 - Fervor
2. Hideo Ichikawa - On The Trade Wind
3. Toshiyuki Honda, Burning Waves - Eastern Legacy
4. Masaru Imada - World Line
5. Christal Zone - Rai Rai ライ・ライ
6. Masahiko Satoh Trio, Akira Miyazawa JPCO06922430 - Nijimasu Part 1 and 2
7. Hot Session - Run After
8. Seiichi Nakamura - Judy's Samba
9. Yasuhiro Kohno - My Favorite Things
10. Masahiko Satoh - History of Jazz
11. MILE AND HALF - Mile and Half
12. Mikio Masuda - Sonic Barrier
13. Tomoki Takahashi, Elvin Jones - Another Soil
14. Motohiko Hino Quartet - Olive's Step

Duval Timothy & Carlos Niño - rain music

A collaborative album by Duval Timothy and Carlos Niño has been released, featuring an intimate duo session for prepared piano and percussion. The project initiated during a meeting in London in November 2025 and was completed through remote collaboration. A defining element of the creative process was the rainy weather, which contributed a distinct atmospheric presence to the final tracks. The album is available as a limited-edition yellow heavyweight vinyl pressing.

Tracklist:
1. assata's rain
2. loopy
3. ideations on rain (feat. Nate Mercereau)
4. bellsssswell
5. bumpy
6. beautiful, tender, colours (feat. Navy Blue)
7. reallyfeelingthis
8. birds, shells, rivets, keys

Homeboy Sandman, Jack Splash - TWENTYFOURSEVEN

Fred P - Resonant Connection

Resonant Connection

A Journey In Modern Electronic Music

This project was created somewhere between sunlight and memory… between the ocean breeze, late-night reflections, and the invisible emotional frequencies that connect us all.

Resonant Connection explores warmth as vibration — deep rhythmic communication designed for movement, intimacy, healing, and elevation. These recordings lean into sensual textures, glowing atmospheres, hypnotic percussion, and emotionally rich harmonics inspired by tropical nights, open skies, salt air, and human connection.

There is a romantic spirit throughout this work. Not romance in the obvious sense, but the kind found in energy exchange… eye contact across a dance floor, heat rising from concrete after sunset, conversations without words, bodies moving in rhythm under moonlight.

The music exists somewhere between deep house, ambient soul, late-night electronic jazz, and spiritual dance music. Built carefully with texture and space in mind, each piece unfolds slowly — allowing emotion, groove, and tone to breathe naturally.

This is music for warm evenings.

For long walks near water.
For driving through cities after midnight.
For moments of reflection and release.
For lovers.
For dreamers.

For those searching for deeper feeling within sound.
Written, produced, and arranged by Fred P.
Created with intention, soul, and love.

Tracklist:
1. To Love You
2. Understanding The Way
3. On The Beach
4. Strangers
5. Making Love
6. Ride
7. Obsession
8. Micro Cosmic Orbit
9. Multiples
10. Sun Drenched
11. Divine Beauty

Karl Hector & The Malcouns - Yolek EP

Tracklist:
1. Yolek
2. Space Race
3. Love Is The Key
4. Sahara Sepp

Brian Jackson - Now More Than Ever

'Collaboration is stimulating, it's in my blood.' Thus speaks Brian Jackson and his philosophy for making music and it's indeed collaboration that runs through this amazing album of reimagined and revisited songs from his artistic past. Featuring artists such as Black Thought, Rahsaan Patterson, Josh Milan, Moodymann, Omar, J. Ivy and others and being produced by Masters At Work, ‘Now More Than Ever’ takes the enduring classic tracks that Brian Jackson made with Gil Scott-Heron and places them in the now over nineteen tracks and across a triple vinyl LP, Double CD and digital release.

Songs such as Lady Day & John Coltrane, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Winter In America, The Bottle and more soundtracked a generational movement of Black Consciousness in the 70s and 80s. As Brian says, 'This album is one way to connect to what we were about in the 70s; we were about change and this is part of the lineage of resistance. These tracks mark a period of time when resistance was essential and now a younger generation has picked them up.'

'As young men in their twenties, we (Brian and Gil) just wrote about what we saw and were feeling and people interpreted these songs in ways we never thought about but as Sly stone said the song comes from me but it's for you.' This statement from Brian perfectly sums up the collaborative nature of Now More Than Ever and the relevance of these songs in a contemporary perspective can be perfectly summed up by the songs themselves.

The formidable stable of artists contributing to each track and the excellent production from Louie Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez make this album an event in itself. However, these songs are there to be enjoyed as a canon or as individual masterpieces, whether on the dancefloor or on a home system.

Available as a high res. digital release, Double CD and a Triple Vinyl LP ‘Now More Than Ever’ just has to be in everybody's music collection.

Tracklist:
1. Poetic Sands (Interlude) (feat. Wes Felton)
2. It's Your World (feat. Raheem DeVaughn, J Ivy)
3. We Almost Lost Detroit (feat. Moodymann)
4. The Bottle (feat. Omar)
5. Peace Go With You, Brother (feat. Raheem DeVaughn)
6. Beautiful Dame (feat. Raquel Ra Brown)
7. Lady Day & John Coltrane (feat. Rahsaan Patterson)
8. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (feat. Black Thought)
9. Addiction (Interlude) (feat. Raquel Ra Brown)
10. Home is Where The Hatred Is (main) (feat. Lisa Fischer)
11. Madison Avenue (feat. Raheem DeVaughn)
12. Is That Jazz? (Rahsaan Patterson)
13. More Than Ever (Interlude) (feat. Raquel Ra Brown)
14. Now More Than Ever
15. Home is Where The Hatred Is
16. Moonshine (Live) (feat. Carl Cornwell)
17. Racetrack in France (feat. Josh Milan, J Ivy, Moodymann)
18. Winter in America (feat. Rich Medina)
19. New York City (feat. Cindy Mizelle, Dawn Tallman, Ramona Dunlap)

Valtteri Laurell & Ricky-Tick Big Band - Visions of Dilla

Finnish jazz producer Valtteri Laurell reworks some of J Dilla’s most iconic beats into adventurous big band versions.

With drummer/producer Teddy Rok (Teppo Mäkynen of Five Corners Quintet, Stance Bros. etc.), flutist extraordinaire Elena Pinderhughes and Laurell’s own 17-piece Ricky-Tick Big Band, he creates a big band album that you never thought you would hear.

Using the sparse and visionary beats of J Dilla as a starting point, Laurell has composed and arranged material on top of the original versions, performed by Ricky-Tick Big Band. ”My original idea was to write very abstract big band moments, that would be like samples Dilla might have used in his work. During the process though, on some of the tracks I started to feel more of a Bob James or Henry Mancini vibe in the arrangements, so the end result is a hybrid of those worlds. Naturally, the spirit of Gil Evans and the later work of Duke Ellington is also floating in the air".

To create a strong connection with the original material, Laurell asked Dilla-aficionado and drummer/producer Teppo ”Teddy Rok” Mäkynen to work with him on the rhythmic side of the pieces. Teddy Rok also mixed the album. As a special guest star, flutist Elena Pinderhughes is featured on Won’t Do and Rico Suave Bossa Nova. Ricky-Tick Big Band, which Laurell founded in 2010 is also well on display here, with rising baritone sax star Linda Fredriksson featured on Beej-n-Dem and trumpetist Jukka Eskola featured on Y’All Ain’t Ready.

Tracklist:
1. Y'All Ain't Ready
2. Won’t Do
3. Beej-n-Dem
4. Rico Suave Bossa Nova
5. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express

Jalen Ngonda - Doctrine of Love

Since the release of his critically acclaimed debut full length, 2023’s Come Around and Love Me, Jalen’s career has undergone a meteoric trajectory.  Now, in 2026, with the embers of his debut still burning brightly, Jalen prepares to drop his eagerly awaited sophomore album, Doctrine of Love. His message: "The doctrine of love holds that every thought and action should be guided first by compassion for others, because love is the highest measure of human worth." The tracks on the forthcoming album are born from this creed. Doctrine of Love blends pop sensibility and soulful melodies with raw grit and groove, expanding on the orchestral arrangements of Come Around and Love Me with flourishes of horns and gospel-kissed background vocals, creating a highly stylish exercise in modern soul artistry.

Tracklist:
1. Anyone In Love
2. Doctrine of Love
3. Mr. Train Conductor
4. Burning Temptation
5. Love is Gone
6. I Can't Ever Leave You
7. Hannah, What's the Matter?
8. Good Good Love
9. Hang It On The Shelf
10. Taken Out of The Picture

Oliver Night - Between The Lines (Remixes, Vol. 2)

Following the first instalment of reworks from his acclaimed album Between The Lines, London-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Oliver Night returns with Between The Lines (Remixes), Vol. 2 - a fresh set of reinterpretations that deepen the album’s connection to the global broken beat and soulful club community.

Bringing together a cross-generational cast of producers, Vol. 2 features remixes from IG Culture, Matica, Inkswel and Marcel Vogel, each offering a distinct perspective while staying rooted in the rhythmic richness and musicality of the original record.

Opening the release, IG Culture - a pioneering force in West London’s broken beat movement - reworks “Friends” featuring KAYA FYAH. Known for his role in shaping the bruk sound through projects like New Sector Movements, IG Culture leans into the track’s percussive core, expanding its rhythmic complexity while preserving the warmth and spirit of the original.

Elsewhere, Liverpool-based producer Matica steps up with a remix of “Boss” featuring Roots Manuva. Built on the original’s broken beat backbone, Matica’s version pushes the track further into club territory, layering heavyweight drums and textured synth work around Roots’ unmistakable vocal. The original marked a significant moment for Oliver, reconnecting with one of his long-time heroes - a collaboration years in the making that serves as a reminder to stay true to oneself.

Elsewhere, Australian producer and DJ Inkswel delivers a vibrant rework of “Undefeated” featuring Goldbar. Bringing his signature blend of soulful house, hip-hop and boogie influences, Inkswel injects a new energy into the album’s opening statement, transforming it into a deep, groove-led club cut while retaining its uplifting essence.

Closing the collection, Marcel Vogel - the Amsterdam-based DJ, producer and founder of Lumberjacks in Hell - turns his attention to “We Are Love” featuring Megatronic. His remix amplifies the track’s future-disco sensibilities, reshaping it into a shimmering, dancefloor-ready anthem that builds on the original’s call to unity and release.

Instrumental versions round out the package, offering DJs and listeners further space to explore the project’s rhythmic detail. 

Tracklist:
1. Friends (feat. KAYA KYAH) (IG Culture Remix)
2. Boss (feat. Roots Manuva) (Matica Remix)
3. Undefeated (feat. Goldbar) (Inkswel Remix)
4. We Are Love (feat. Megatronic) (Marcel Vogel Remix)
5. Friends (IG Culture Remix) (Instrumental)
6. Boss (feat. Roots Manuva) (Matica Remix) (Instrumental)
7. Undefeated (feat. Goldbar) (Inkswel Remix) (Instrumental)
8. We Are Love (feat. Megatronic) (Marcel Vogel Remix) (Instrumental)

VA - Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980

Kaiso Power is a collection of rare jazz, calypso and percussive gems from Trinidad and Tobago from the revolutionary generation of the 1970s, bringing radical new political vision and reclaiming ancient spiritual consciousness through music. At the dawn of the 70s a shift was taking place all around the world. The streets of Port of Spain thronged with Black Power marches, trade union demonstrations and Carnival protest bands - one epicentre in a growing global exchange of ideologies and strategies among Pan Africanist circles in Jamaica, Guyana, London, New York, Montreal, Lagos, Accra and beyond. And when the meetings were over, the revolution moved to the cramped secret dance halls, the Carnival fetes, the steelband yards. The music always had a sharp edge. Searing commentary has always been part of the various types of music in Trinidad, and in the absence of lyrics, the defiant use of the drum maintains the resistance, as well as the re-framing of the playing of European instruments to the needs of the message. Lancelot Layne, Delano Abdul Malik De Coteau, Andre Tanker, Clive Zanda, Mansa Musa were more than artists, they were teachers, community workers and advocates for justice. These recordings are as raw as an all-night Carnival jam, the horns loud, the percussion ringing out, the bass dripping with joy and rebellion. Under the modern influences is a solid rhythm, an unbroken connection to Africa, the songs and keys and cadences brought across the middle passage. These songs are a peep into the untapped treasures of a revolutionary generation, looking at the world with fresh eyes and believing that music was a central part of the mission to build consciousness and regain confidence.

Tracklist:
1. Clive Zanda - Ogun
2. Michael Boothman's Family Tree - Tabu
3. Lancelot Layne - Umbawa
4. Andre Tanker - River Come Down
5. Black Truth Rhythm Band - Save D Musician (2024 Remastered Edition)
6. Art de Coteau - Kerieka Woman
7. Mansa Musa - Beat The Drum
8. Sensational Roots - Calypso Zest
9. Frends - Mystery Music
10. Abdul Malik de Coteau - More Weight

Inkswel - Mystery Man ft. Reggie B

The formidable forces of Inkswel and Reggie B have teamed up on Flat White Records to bring you "Mystery Man".

Inkswel needs no introduction having been in the game for over two decades and having already featured on the label as a remixer, it was only right to get him back for some original business.

The track features some unmistakeable vocals from Reggie B, another legend in the game who brings his signature sound every time.

On remix duties, Just One has flipped the original mix into a bruk version, consistent with his signature style when not churning out house as one half of KemeticJust.

Tracklist:
1. Mystery Man (feat. Reggie B)
2. Mystery Man (feat. Reggie B) (Instrumental)
3. Mystery Man (feat. Reggie B) (Just One Remix)

VA - Soul Jazz Records Presents LONDON JAZZ CLASSICS

First time in print in over 30 years for this seminal jazz dance collection.

One-off limited edition orange coloured vinyl edition.

London Jazz Classics was the first album collection ever to be released on Soul Jazz Records back in 1993. The album brought together rare and obscure dance tracks in a unique mix of jazz dance and fusion, funk, Brazilian and Latin grooves.

The album was ironically titled - none of the music was from London, none of the music was traditionally classified as jazz, and all of the tracks were at the time practically unknown to most people. Instead these were tracks that were filling dancefloors in a nascent jazz dance scene in London being created by a small group of DJs – Paul Murphy, Gilles Peterson, Sylvester, Patrick Forge and a few others.

As demand for these rare groove jazz tracks grew, previously unknown records such as Alive’s ‘Skindo Le Le’, Doug Richardson’s ‘Salsa Mama’, Carlos Franzetti’s ‘Cocoa Funk’ and Emilio Santiago’s ‘Bananeira’ became sort after and even-harder-to-find items with original copies going for £100s of pounds.

These tracks became part of the soundtrack to this jazz dance scene which has now spread across the world. This music paved the way for the arrival of many of the UK’s new wave of current artists such Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective who today offer a uniquely London sensibility of fusing jazz with wide-ranging cultural influences – everything from afrobeat to soul.

London Jazz Classics was the first album to bring this jazz dance music featured here to a wider audience. More than 30 years since its initial release Soul Jazz Records are releasing this new 2026 edition, bringing the music once more to a new generation of listeners.

This album brings together tracks from across the 3 original London Jazz Classics albums.

Tracklist:
1. Alive! - Skindo Le Le
2. Emilio Santiago - Bananeira
3. Carlos Franzetti - Cocoa Funk
4. The Robin Jones Seven - Atlas
5. Airto Moreira - Jump
6. Antonio Adolfo - Cascavel
7. Hannibal - Mother’s Land
8. Doug Richardson - Salsa Mama

Immanuel Wilkins - Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 3 (Live)

GRAMMY-nominated alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins has released Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard, Vol. 3, the final installment of a searing 3-volume document of his acclaimed quartet in action at the hallowed NYC jazz shrine. Vol. 1 is available on LP, CD, and digital formats while Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 are digital-only releases.

The albums capture Wilkins’ quartet featuring Micah Thomas on piano, Ryoma Takenaga on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums taking flight on expansive explorations of Wilkins originals, and one Alice Coltrane composition, in a room steeped in jazz lore. Wilkins indelibly etches his name onto the list of jazz greats who have made seminal live recordings within these same walls.

“Live at the Village Vanguard is a bold endeavor to summon the Vanguard’s sonic history and make it audible,” writes Tina M. Campt in the Vol. 1 liner notes. “It harnesses this legacy and reactivates it as what he defines as practice – a practice of improvisational sounding, congregational listening, and devotional ritual.”

Tracklist:
1. RING SHOUT (Live)
2. COMPOSITION IX (Live)
3. DOLLA$ (Live)
4. PUT 100 ON THE BLUE CHAIN (Live)

HLZ - All My Life

HLZ delivers his debut album for Metalheadz with 'All My Life', a project shaped by patience, experience and a deep rooted connection to the label's sound.

The album began with the title track, first played during Goldie's residency at XOYO before eventually making its way to the label, and it was from that moment that the idea of a full-length record started to take shape. Around the same time HLZ moved back to Italy, embracing a slower pace of life that gave him the space and focus to bring the project together.

Rather than following a fixed concept, 'All My Life' grew naturally in the studio. HLZ approached the process with what he calls a sense of humble confidence, trusting his instincts while staying grounded in the culture that shaped him. The aim was simple: to make music that could last beyond the short cycles that often define modern releases.

Across the album, HLZ moves between soulful depth with a classic Metalheadz twang, into moments that push beyond his usual territory. From the title track's unmistakable Headz spirit to more exploratory pieces like 'Roadblock' and the introspective 'Solitary', 'All My Life' captures an artist fully settled in his voice.

More than anything, the album reflects HLZ's deep connection to the music and the sound that has influenced him from the very beginning.

Tracklist:
1. Eagle Dub
2. All My Life
3. The Genie (feat. Cleveland Watkiss)
4. Matter Of Time 
5. Love Is Strength
6. Bad Boy Sound
7. Boulevard
8. It's Going Wrong (feat. Bipolar)
9. Solitary
10. Origins
11. Roadblock
12. Avenge
13. Oracles
14. Roughness
15. Blue Codes
16. The Final

Calibre - Tricklemore Sea

Calibre announces his new album ‘Tricklemore Sea’, set for release on gatefold double vinyl, CD and digital on 1st May via Signature Recordings.

A deeply personal and exploratory body of work, the album moves through ambient, shoegaze, electronic, blues and folk, all subtly shaped by the low-end sensibility that has defined his music for decades. It resists easy categorisation, reflecting an ongoing interest in blending bass culture with forms that sit outside it. Following the release of ‘They Want You’ at the end of 2025, this new project marks a clear shift in tone. Where that record leans into intensity and forward momentum, ‘Tricklemore Sea’ turns inward, occupying a more introspective space. Featuring entirely his own vocals and production, it carries a more exposed and vulnerable quality.

The album has taken shape gradually, drawing from material written in the years after ‘Planet Hearth’. Rather than forming around a fixed concept, it emerges as a collection of pieces connected by tone and instinct. Tracks move between simplicity and abstraction, with piano-led compositions sitting alongside field recordings, improvisations and bass-driven works. Ideas often begin quickly, then evolve over long periods of revisiting and reworking. His voice takes on a more central role throughout, bringing a heightened sense of vulnerability. Lyrics and delivery are often left open, allowing space for interpretation. His process remains fluid and instinctive, with ideas written quickly, revisited over time and combined across different periods.

Moments such as ‘Little Blend’ carry a quiet melancholia balanced with hope, while ‘Free One’ reflects on the pressures of contemporary life. The title track considers the scale of human existence within a wider universe, framing individual lives as small but meaningful within something larger. Elsewhere, ‘Deflower’ and ‘Pigeon Luncheon’ draw from recordings made in Berlin at the end of lockdown, capturing a sense of movement and return. Older material, including ‘Living In Your Head’ and ‘Hyndsight’, is recontextualised and sits naturally alongside newer work. Threads from his wider catalogue remain present. ‘Able Son Dub’ nods to longstanding reggae influences, while ‘Bit Broken Stream’ appears here in a downtempo form alongside its drum and bass counterpart from ‘They Want You’. Tracks like ‘United Pull’ and ‘Mizzle Mine’ lean further into abstraction, using minimal language and space to suggest mood rather than define it.

Over more than 30 years, Calibre has built a catalogue that moves across drum and bass, ambient, dub, techno, house, jazz, soul, blues and folk. His work is marked by restraint, quiet melancholy and a singular approach that continues to evolve. Complete authorship remains central, with all vocals, lyrics and production on both ‘They Want You’ and ‘Tricklemore Sea’ created solely by him. This breadth extends into his DJ sets, where he draws heavily from his own catalogue, often performing entirely self-produced material across a wide range of tempos and styles. His ability to move between contexts has seen him play at Boomtown, Houghton and Atonal Berlin, delivering distinct sets while maintaining a clear identity.

With ‘Tricklemore Sea’, that identity leans toward stillness, introspection and emotional depth. It is a record that prioritises feeling over definition, holding space for ambiguity while remaining grounded in a strong sense of authorship. Each release carries an element of exposure, a moment of vulnerability in letting the work go. At its core, the album seeks to capture something fleeting but recognisable, a sense of beauty that sits just beyond language.

He describes it simply: “The river inside of me flowing into the sea.”

Tracklist:
1. Little Blend
2. Free One
3. Tricklemore Sea
4. Deflower
5. Living In Your Head
6. Modest
7. Able Son Dub
8. Pigeon Luncheon
9. Hyndsight
10. United Pull
11. Bit Broken
12. Mizzle Mine
13. Inbetween

VA - Brownswood - Twenty Years Deep

Brownswood Recordings mark two decades of boundary-pushing independent music with Twenty Years Deep, a limited-edition compilation celebrating the label’s rich, global catalogue and enduring influence.

Founded in 2006 by broadcaster, DJ, and cultural tastemaker Gilles Peterson, Brownswood has spent the last 20 years championing forward-thinking artists who sit just left of centre: rooted in Afro-diasporic music, but never confined by genre. Twenty Years Deep is a snapshot of that journey: a carefully curated collection spanning the label’s early breakthroughs, cult classics, and defining moments.

Twenty Years Deep brings together tracks that reflect Brownswood’s long-standing commitment to artistic freedom, musical lineage, and future-facing sounds. From deep jazz explorations and dancefloor mutations to global collaborations and genre-defying hybrids, the compilation captures the connective thread that has defined the label since day one: trust in artists and belief in music that lasts.

Rather than a greatest-hits exercise, Twenty Years Deep functions as an archive and a statement documenting how Brownswood has maintained its own point of view. By following a highly instinctive approach to A&R the label has shaped music culture, introduced new voices, and built a catalogue that continues to resonate well beyond release cycles.

Tracklist:
1. Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band featuring Dreiser & Sexto Sentido - Orisa
2. Owiny Sigoma Band - Nabed Nade Ei Piny Ka (Rework)
3. Mala - Calle F
4. Diggs Duke - Something In My Soul
5. LV - Hammers and Roses (feat. Tigran Hamasyan)
6. Zara McFarlane - All Africa
7. Sonzeira - Nós precisamos de você (feat. Moses Boyd)
8. Shabaka and the Ancestors - The Observer
9. Daymé Arocena - Eleggua
10. Theon Cross - Brockley
11. Joe Armon-Jones - Mollison Dub
12. STR4TA - Aspects (Demus Dub)
13. Bokani Dyer - Ke Nako
14. Divine Earth - no one else has your magik!
15. Kokoroko - We Give Thanks
16. Yussef Dayes - Chi Ave / A Love Letter to Salvador
17. Emma-Jean Thackray - Save Me
18. Tom Skinner - The Maxim (feat. Meshell Ndegeocello)
19. ZENA, Meron T - IT'S YOU (ANTE NEH) (feat. Meron T)

Lady Wray - Cover Girl (Instrumentals)

Tracklist:
1. My Best Step (Instrumental)
2. Be A Witness (Instrumental)
3. Where Could I Be (Instrumental)
4. Hard Times (Instrumental)
5. Best For Us (Instrumental)
6. Cover Girl (Instrumental)
7. You're Gonna Win (Instrumental)
8. Time (Instrumental)
9. What It Means (Instrumental)
10. Higher (Instrumental)
11. Calm (Instrumental)

Norah Jane, MOR.LOV - Godspeed

With Godspeed, Amsterdam’s Norah Jane and producer MOR.LOV present a debut album that feels both intimate and expansive. A 16-track journey that traces emotional turbulence, late-night clarity, and the subtle glow of growth. Building on the momentum of their earlier singles the full album reveals the true breadth of their collaboration.

The origins of Godspeed lie in a modest gig at Bar Bario, where MOR.LOV first invited vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Norah Jane to perform. What began as an idea to merge her crystalline vocals with MOR.LOV’s palette of jungle breaks and jazz-fusion textures quickly evolved into deeper creative chemistry. Across months of sessions, 30 demos distilled into a tight, narrative-driven sequence of 16 tracks.

At the heart of the record sits its title track, “Godspeed”, written and produced during a moment of shared personal upheaval. MOR.LOV’s production leans into shadowed breaks, ambient tension, and the feeling of something unresolved, while Norah responds almost immediately, shaping the lyrics and flow with instinct rather than deliberation. Minimal edits preserve its emotional imprint, a moment captured in its rawest form.

As a whole, Godspeed moves fluidly across UK jazz, lo-fi jazz, fusion, jungle-adjacent rhythms, and late-night soul, while never drifting from its central emotional thread. Features from SB ARRA, Razeen, and Groove God Jaïr Darnoud expand the record’s world without diluting its intimacy. Tracks like “Babylon”, “School Trip”, and “Flowers in London” showcase the album’s blend of playful experimentation and diaristic vulnerability, music that captures fleeting truths with cinematic detail.

Godspeed arrives after the duo’s 2025 project A Minute - a five-track EP drifting between hazy romance, dub-tinged grooves and soulful, melancholic reflection. Where A Minute captured small chapters, Godspeed steps back to examine the full story. It marks the pair’s most cohesive and personal body of work to date. Together, they’ve crafted a world that feels new yet familiar, a record that sits comfortably alongside Europe’s rising alternative vanguards while carving out a space entirely its own. 

Tracklist:
1. There Is No Greater Love
2. Hiding
3. A Minute
4. School Trip
5. Courtesy
6. Godspeed
7. No Regrets
8. Focus
9. Is It
10. N1 Dub
11. Babylon
12. Distracted
13. Come Around
14. What Does Not Come to You Does Not Belong to You
15. Flowers in London
16. Poison

Antonio Vale da Conceicao - The Violin Case (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The Violin Case (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) marks the first feature-length scoring assignment for Portuguese-Macanese composer António Vale da Conceição, written for the debut feature by director Max Bessmertny (2025). The film unfolds over a single night in Macao — the former Portuguese enclave on China's southern coast — as a struggling American painter frantically searches for a violin artwork left behind in a taxi. The soundtrack is released on Plaza Mayor Company Ltd, a London/Hong Kong-based independent label specialising in international film scores.

Conceição's music mirrors the very fabric of Macao itself: a city of five languages and layered cultural identities. Across eighteen cues, the score weaves cinematic textures and rhythmic precision into an intimate sonic journey that moves from nocturnal unease ("Sauvage", "The Taxi Ride") through moments of wry comedy ("Mah Jeong Is Good", "Le Party") and deepening existential drift ("He So Sad", "Lost Baby"). Track titles in English, French, Spanish, and transliterated Cantonese echo the film's multilingual cast and its surrealist odyssey through Macao's back alleys after dark.

The film was shot in September 2022 on location across forty Macao sites, drawing on the city's social aesthetic from the 1970s through the 1990s. Conceição, whose previous credits include INA, Beautiful Game, and Beyond the Spreadsheet: The Story of TM1, brings his characteristic ability to craft soundscapes that shift between intimate melody and expansive layered arrangement — a quality well suited to a story that Bessmertny explicitly modelled on Scorsese's After Hours: a city-at-night thriller in which a single misfortune spirals inexorably out of control.

Tracklist:
1. Sauvage
2. The Flying Robber
3. The Taxi Ride
4. The Taxi Driver
5. I'm Somebody
6. Rashed
7. Le Party
8. Let Me In
9. No Me Diga Que No Duele
10. Sauvage Deux
11. Pretty
12. Napoleon on the Beach
13. Hanoi
14. I Remember You
15. He So Sad
16. Lost Baby
17. Mah Jeong Is Good
18. Baby is Lost

Jeff Parker & ETA IVtet - Happy Today

Happy Today, the third album from guitarist/bandleader Jeff Parker’s long-running ETA IVtet, was recorded live at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on August 20, 2025. This fresh entry into the IVtet’s catalog captures Parker and the band – including drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, and saxophonist Josh Johnson – on record outside of the now-shuttered Highland Park micro-club ETA for the first time.

The performance also captures a distinctly joyful night of togetherness set against the backdrop of dark times. “2025 was a very difficult year for me and my family,” Parker says. “Dealing with being displaced from the Eaton fires for eight months, and the kind of toll that that instability took on my family’s mental health and general outlook, coupled with Donald Trump being back in office and basically making life miserable for everyone… There was a lot of sadness and despair. But feeling the sense of community that we created with our concert, and later hearing the recording, seeing the beautiful footage that had been shot and the photographs of such joy to be back in that space and to be making music again: It was a very happy moment. So I called the record Happy Today. It’s meant to be a statement of joy.”

That joy and camaraderie found in communal space seems to be a major catalyst for the ETA IVtet’s music. The band’s audience is, somehow, an essential part of the formula. Case in point: the show at Lodge Room was actually meant to be the cherry on top of a weekend of studio sessions by the band. Those sessions were intended to be the next album released by the group, its first ever studio record. Upon listening back, though, it was clear to Parker that the Lodge Room performance was the recording that shined brightest and felt most true to the band’s spirit, harkening back to the weekly session the four musicians held at ETA for so many years.

ETA was undoubtedly more than just the namesake of the band. Part laboratory, part low-stakes proving ground, it’s where the language of the IVtet’s sound percolated and coalesced over the course of an almost mythical seven-year-long Monday night residency that yielded two critically-acclaimed records—2022’s Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy and 2024’s The Way Out of Easy—and an instantly recognizable group sound.

Happy Today is that sound—the IVtet's signature syntax built around long-form, minimalist improvisation—expanding confidently into a larger space while creating the same hypnotizing, deeply-tuned listening effect on visibly enraptured audiences. The album contains two sidelong pieces recorded as the band performed in the round at Lodge Room, surrounded by an audience of 400 or so deep listeners. (The venue, appropriately enough, sits on the same street and just a few hundred feet away from the storefront that used to be ETA.)

The drastic change in venue size, and this document in general, is representative of an expanding demand to experience this band live that has been surging for years, starting with the release of their debut album Mondays. For the subsequent, final year that ETA was open, there would typically be a line down the block on Monday evenings, with far more people trying to catch the show than the club could hold. Even if you could get inside the building, given the limited capacity, the IVtet was a difficult band to actually see play. Couple that with the fact that before the closure of the club in December 2023, the IVtet had never played outside of Los Angeles. Access to the live experience had been extremely limited, and that has seemed to feed a sense of mystery and allure around the band’s music for the many fans of Mondays and The Way Out of Easy.

On paper, the IVtet’s growing audience is something of a conundrum. After all, minimal longform improvisation is likely the precise antithesis of streaming-centered content culture. Despite that, at the show that produced Happy Today, as with any IVtet show, the audience willingly settles into and accepts the band’s pace as they iron out a story which digs deeply into every facet of an idea before investigating a new one. Here the attention economy feels lightyears away, the crowd instead surrendering to that old and very human penchant for listening. With open ears, the crowd stands ready for a big yarn, a long tale, and from the jump there seems to be a trust between performer and audience that mimics the trust between the musicians as they move from detail to detail.

“The band isn't afraid to explore static spaces,” says Parker. “It seems like the thing is to stay on one idea for a while. Really, for a long time. To kind of exhaust it. And then one person shifts and then the thing moves together.”

“Everybody is constantly dropping crumbs and you can take them or you can leave them,” agrees Bellerose. “There are these little hints, these little moments, and everybody's aware of them.”

“When it is time to change, it can change very quickly,” says Butterss. “If someone suggests a new idea, it can flip in an instant. Everyone's constantly ready to go with it if the moment calls for it.”

“Like Swimwear,” the side-length opener of Happy Today, contains a quintessential example of this distinct IVtet move. The track gets off the ground slowly but deliberately, ramping up tension over the course of its first ten minutes without a moment of harmonic dissonance. The band, rather, steadily pulls at the corners of the rhythm. Here each member steps forward and backward in the sonic space to build a gleefully disorienting group cadence, where the repetitions of the individual overlap in such a trancelike way that even soloistic breaks from Parker’s electric guitar or Johnson’s effected alto sax never manage to snap the tension wire. Bellerose works deep into the rhythmic fascia, employing all manner of auxiliary percussion—strewn across his kit, tucked into his shoe, or wrapped around his legs—all without a hint of novelty. Every micro-choice comes from a place of both curiosity and confidence.

And then the shift: just as the thing is about to come unglued Bellerose opts into a smooth, low-register downbeat groove that Butterss has been auditioning for the previous minute or so. Parker swiftly kicks into an organ-like drone while Johnson and Butterss stay the course. It’s a series of decisions that could go any number of ways depending on the night, like running water pushing into fresh geography, moving from tributary to mainstream, past the levee and into the floodplain. There is no set path; if it went a different direction it would still be the cumulative result of the same water flowing.

That is to say that there are no hard and fast rules to what the IVtet does. Defining the music, in fact, is something that the band takes special care not to do. Living in that mystery, it seems, helps to keep the path open, cleared to push into new and satisfying territory.

“For me, the thing to protect is just where it started from, which was freedom and openness,” says Bellerose. “In the early days of the band Jeff was recognizing how we were all communicating within the structure of playing standards. He's one of the greatest producers I've ever worked with because he has this vision. And a big part of producing is casting—putting the right people in the room. So these shifts, they're completely natural within these improvised pieces that we do because the foundation was there and Jeff knew it. He had already noticed the communication within the band, but wanted to really push it further.”

The key to Parker’s push lies in the generosity to step back, to allow each member an equal voice, and to de-center himself. What we hear on Happy Today is an egalitarian group sound by design, curious and intuitive.

“Everybody's listening in a way where it's not always like ‘I'm going to go with you’,” says Johnson. “But it's always ‘I hear you’. And sometimes it's ‘I hear you and I'm going to stay here and allow the tension of these two things to exist for a while before maybe joining you.’ But the thing that's cool is that everybody’s hearing it. Because of the time that we've spent together there’s a maturity to the listening—a very special version of deep listening.”

“The number of times that we've talked about the music is so few compared to the years and years of playing,” Johnson continues. “I think that's one of the really beautiful things about the band—how organically the way that we play together has come about and evolved over time. Definitely on brand for the music that the band makes too. Slowly evolving, long form development.”

“I learned how to improvise in this band,” reveals Butterss, astonishingly. “I didn't really play improvised music before. So my whole approach to improvisation has been shaped by playing with Jeff, Jay, and Josh. It is a band and it has its own language. I think you could drop the needle on any of the recordings and people would be able to say ‘that's the quartet.’ It's very distinctive and it's developed very organically. We have never talked about it, I don't think.”

“That's our band,” says Parker of “Like Swimwear,” almost with an outsider’s sense of fascination at the recording. He seems to feel the same enchantment and surprise that the audience does while listening, despite being a primary part of the process. “That's it. I mean, that's what the ETA Quartet does.”

It’s a blessing for this band to be so expertly documented in its naturally public, live context. The two sidelong improvisations from Lodge Room that make up Happy Today, as with the recordings that made up the IVtet’s first two albums, are beautifully rendered by engineer Bryce Gonzales—recorded and mixed live, direct to a Nagra tape machine utilizing a compact outboard rig that he built himself, specifically to record this band. Much like the thumbprint originality coming from the players themselves, Gonzales’ capture of the music is its own signature, his mixes a form of sound improvisation themselves.

A major addition to this particular presentation is the full album length film by Charlie Weinmann, documenting the band's performance of Happy Today at Lodge Room, which will be released in tandem with the album. A shadow-laden, almost noirlike capture of the band in its full sprawling glory, Weinmann’s camera makes the joyful reality of seeing the IVtet at work widely accessible for the first time.

With Happy Today the reach of Parker’s IVtet extends further than ever before, but the essential formula, if there is one, remains the same. The anchor seems to be in variations on an almost alchemical communication—a feeling of connection between band members, sure, but also between the band and the audience. It’s an ongoing trust exercise, born organically in the corner of a small room in Los Angeles and flowing outward at exactly its own natural pace. It’s social music with a clear ability to move those willing to listen. Happy Today is an invitation to become part of the exchange and experience the joy of deep listening. 

Tracklist:
1. Like Swimwear
2. Happy Today
3. Like Swimwear (part one)
4. Like Swimwear (part two)

Slowe - In Moments

“This week we we’re completely blown away by Slowe” Sian Eleri (Selector Radio)

“Sonics that I think will keep you cosy when it is quite grey outside ... Really lush bass line, and swirling chords, signature ethereal vocals” Jess Iszatt (BBC Radio 1)

"Beautiful new one out..." Craig Charles (BBC 6 Music)

“How good was that? ... Absolutely love that, really do” Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM)

“Love this!” Rohan Rakhit (Worldwide FM)

Bristol-based artist, songwriter and producer Slowe unveils her long-awaited second album In Moments, a vintage-dipped collection that captures the fleeting, fragile, quietly transformative fragments of late-twenties life.

Where her acclaimed debut, Where The Mind Wanders, introduced Slowe as a self-taught producer with a meticulous ear and lo-fi soul aesthetic, In Moments leans further into richness, depth and full-band warmth, without losing the intimacy that has always defined her work. Across In Moments, Slowe writes in real time, tracking shifts in relationships, the weight of anxiety, tiny joys, the ache of self-awareness and the slow, sometimes reluctant evolution that adulthood demands.

“This album is a meditation on change: fearing it, needing it and learning to let it shape me. Across its songs run the threads of self-doubt, shifting relationships, quiet joys and the bittersweet weight of time. It’s about the laughter that erupts without reason, the sting of tears in the middle of happiness, the moments when the heart takes a step before the mind is ready” Slowe

Those themes thread through every corner of the record, from the soul-soaked grooves of “How Hard Can It Be”, to the quiet resilience of “Sundown”, the emotional tension of “Too Much to Ask” and the quiet acceptance in “Temporary (You’ll Be Gone)”. The album expands further into upbeat, melodic territory with tracks like “Lifeline”, dips into hazy, late-night grooves on focus track “Puzzle” and “Mind/Body” and pares everything back in the stripped-down reflections of “Pen to Paper” and “Rhyme or Reason”.

Slowe has been sharing regular record-collection videos on her socials, earning a stamp of approval from legends Chuck D and De La Soul. This deep love of music is reflected throughout In Moments, which draws from the golden textures of Bill Withers, Minnie Riperton, Ebo Taylor and ‘70s soul, while also aligning with the modern alt-R&B and neo-soul sensibilities of artists like Sault and Joy Crookes. Nostalgic harmonies, glowing chord work and live instrumentation mingle with Slowe’s signature drum programming and glistening production details, a balance between classic soul and contemporary dreaminess.

Recorded between her home studio and sessions with long-time collaborator, Laurence Fazakerley Buglass, a fellow Bristol-based producer and instrumentalist, the album is a conversation between the intimacy of bedroom production and the energy of musicians breathing together in a room. Contributions from her circle within Bristol’s thriving jazz and neo-soul scenes bring additional depth, horn lines that flicker like candlelight, rhythm sections that move with patient confidence and harmonies stacked in rich, analogue shades.

If Where The Mind Wanders was inward-looking, a scrapbook of private thoughts, In Moments feels more grounded, intentional, sure of its own softness. It’s a record that sits with uncertainty, hope, longing and acceptance. It takes its time and invites listeners to do the same.

“These are moments of mine,” Slowe says, “and now I’m placing them gently in your hands. My hope is that you’ll share these moments with me and find echoes of your own on the way.”

Organic and deeply human, In Moments is Slowe at her most focused and emotionally attuned. A soul-rooted exploration of change, captured with the honesty, subtlety and quiet power that have become unmistakably hers. 

Tracklist:
1. How Hard Can It Be?
2. What If
3. Puzzle
4. Too Much to Ask
5. Pen to Paper
6. Rhyme or Reason
7. Not Asking the Stars
8. Temporary (You'll Be Gone)
9. Mind/Body
10. Careful Now
11. Lifeline (feat. Ethan Mark)
12. Sundown (feat. Alamay)

Alabaster DePlume - Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew: Epilogue

** Available on vinyl as a Record Store Day exclusive worldwide this Record Store Day, Saturday April 18th, 2026 **

'Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew: Epilogue' is a new EP by Alabaster DePlume, recorded during the middle of his March 2025 US tour. DePlume had been playing shows with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Tcheser Holmes, performing music from his critically acclaimed album 'A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole' (released March 2025). The trio’s onstage rapport was so immediate and strong that, on an off day in Brooklyn, DePlume chose to capture that connection, recording this collection of instrumental pieces shaped by the experience of performing, sharing, and improvising off the music of A Blade for audiences across the US.

DePlume says: “Meeting with you all at the shows I sensed that you felt voiceless, on this ethical issue that also spelled out what we’re seeing today, in the form of ICE. That experience with you is etched into me, like graffiti or a poster on the wall. It’s my job to deliver your voice, and that’s what this record is. And to take action. That urgency compelled me to record then. And now here we are. As we said, this world is awakening to the reality it was already living.”

Dear Children serves as an epilogue to A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, and as a companion bookend with his October 2024 EP 'Cremisan: Prologue to A Blade'.

As with almost everything that DePlume has put forth in recent years, the connection of all these works to Palestine is deep. The Cremisan EP itself was recorded in Palestine. Dear Children incorporates field recordings and samples of children playing and of normal life in the West Bank, and its cover art depicts wheatpaste posters of a drawing made by a 13-year-old boy from Gaza (used with permission). The inscription on the cover art says, in Arabic, “Dedicated to the mother of the martyr/witness Obaida Ahmed al-Qiram. May you rest in peace. From your student, the artist, Hasan Jawad Abudayyeh.” 

Tracklist:
1. Bringing Up The Nakba
2. I Play A Role In It And I Know
3. It's Only Now Once (Elbit Systems Windowpane)
4. Glass
5. What Did The Child Say / Facing Reality

VA - FABRICLIVE SELECTS VII

FABRICLIVE SELECTS returns for its seventh instalment, presenting a focused collection of UK Garage from some of the scene’s most essential established and emerging producers. The exclusive V/A sampler features five original cuts from the compilation, capturing the energy and momentum of the contemporary dancefloor.

Leading the release is DJ Q with ‘Lose My Cool’, out 24th April on FABRICLIVE. The track channels early 2000s UKG through a refined speed garage lens driven by a deep, rolling bassline, crisp shuffled percussion, and autotuned vocals that drift between rhythmic stabs and melodic hooks. A hypnotic, high-impact cut that balances heritage and modern club pressure.

The SELECTS series continues the label’s focus on original club productions, bringing together tightly curated VA collections that spotlight key voices across the underground. Each instalment is built around a specific strand of contemporary club sound, offering a direct snapshot of where things are at in real time through fabric’s curatorial lens.

‘Lose My Cool’ sits at the heart of this seventh edition, reinforcing the series’ commitment to forward-facing UKG while staying rooted in the genre’s original spirit.

Tracklist:
1. Lose My Cool – DJ Q
2. Hyper – Bodhi
3. This Bassline Smells Like Oil – Ghoulish
4. Best Of Me – 1111
5. Target – Gemi & Kori
6. Dub Selecta 16 – Pj Bridger & Daffy
7. Riddim – Eloquin & Reimond
8. ON TOUR – SEMPA
9. The Power – Tarzi
10. Up A Little – Me & George
11. Something About You – Jessi Lowkey
12. One – Lash
13. So Good – ance.
14. Keep It Goin – KAISUI

Fairfield Ethio-Jazz Project - Bath Ketama

Fairfield House Ethio Jazz Project - Bath Ketema is an exuberant, contemporary and distinctly psychedelic recreation of the simmering Ethio-Jazz sounds pioneered in Addis Ababa in the 1960s and 1970s by musicians such as Mulatu Astatke and Hailu Mergia & the Walias Band.

Fairfield House, Bath is where HIM Emperor Haile Selassie I lived in exile 1936-1941 when Mussolini invaded his native Ethiopia. Gifted by HIM to the city of Bath as a home for the aged, today Fairfield House hosts a thriving community which celebrates HIM’s gift and his legacy. www.fairfieldhousebath.co.uk

As part of celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of HIM being awarded the Freedom of the City of Bath, Fairfield House convened an Ethio-Jazz Project under the musical direction of Ross Hughes. The Fairfield House Ethio-Jazz Project has since grown in ambition and popularity, now attracting some exceptional musicians in the Bath and Bristol region.

The complex rhythms are laid down by Riaan Vosloo (double bass) and Mark Whitlam (drum kit) playing for the first time with percussionists Stephen ‘Ras Blaggy’ Blagrove and Norman ‘Jah Rubba’ Stephenson. Horn section and soloists are Laura Jurd (trumpet), Will Gregory (alto & bari sax, oboe, synth) and Ross Hughes (alto flute, bass clarinet, tenor sax, synth). Synths are played by Ross (Microkorg) and Will (Roland SH101). Adrian Utley adds his unique style of electric guitar, Harriet Riley plays vibraphone and Julius Richard adds the distinctively authentic Ethiopian sound of the krar.

Tracklist:
1. Emnete
2. Nètsanèt
3. Arbegnoch
4. Kulunmanqueleshi
5. Yèkèrmo Sèw
6. Tche Belew
7. Yèkatit
8. Baobab Blooms
9. Tezetayé Antchi Ligj
10. Muziqawi Silt
11. Sabyé
12. Yègellé Tezeta
13. Midnight Bunna

Georgie Sweet - I Swear To You: The Remixes

First Word Records are proud to present 'I Swear To You: The Remixes' by Georgie Sweet.

This is a 5-track EP consisting of new versions of tracks that originally appeared on the Brighton-based singer-songwriter's soulful sophomore album 'I Swear To You', released Summer 2025, produced & co-written by Marc Rapson.

Covering a wide spread of genres, these mixes include versions from a varied selection of producers at the top of their game right now; Children of Zeus, Kaidi Tatham, Don Leisure, Last Nubian & Nu:Tone.

The original album received an abundance of love & praise from the likes of the legendary Jimmy Jam, Gilles Peterson (including a live Worldwide FM session), Lauren Laverne (BBC 6 Music), Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2), Tony Minvielle & Simon Phillips (Jazz FM), Patrick Forge (NTS), Kev Beadle (Totally Wired), Clash Magazine, Somewhere Soul, Assorted Tapes (USA), Bandcamp ('Albums of the Year') and many more, across Rinse FM, Soho Radio and beyond.

The EP kicks off with the remix of 'Energy', courtesy of label-mates and Mancunian hip hop-soul kings, Children of Zeus. This follows on from a previous collaboration between the artists, as Georgie's first appearance on the First Word label was her feature on the title track of the duo's last album 'Balance', back in 2021. For this new version, Konny Kon and Tyler Daley flip the track in their trademark bass-weighted style of alternative R&B, with Tyler also providing additional vocals to the piece.

Next up, Cardiff beatmaker Don Leisure steps up with his flip of 'Equal Measure'. Long-time First Word family, both with his solo projects (the acclaimed 'Shaboo' series and the 'Halal Cool J' beat tape), and as half of Darkhouse Family with Earl Jeffers. Last year, Don Leisure won the Welsh Music Prize with his album 'Tyrchu Sain' for the Welsh indie-label Sain Records. On this one, he lays down a grimey chopped-up hip hop beat in his uniquely heavy style.

Belfast-based broken-beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham is next with a version of 'Become New'. King Kaidi is an absolute pioneer in the realms of British black music, working with Amy Winehouse, Soul II Soul, Nubya Garcia, regular collaborator Dego and global luminaries like Leroy Burgess, Slum Village, Marcos Valle & extensively with DJ Jazzy Jeff and his PLAYlist project. With past releases for Theo Parrish, and fans including Madlib, he's a true legend in the game, and here drops a piece of electronic jazz-bruk fusion in his inimitable style & fashion.

Taking things up a step for the club dancefloors, we welcome Last Nubian aka Tre Wright, who delivers a tough vibey 4/4 house mix of 'The Ones We Loved'. Tre has been carving out a space for himself past few years in a multitude of places, releasing for Eglo Records, Touching Bass & CoOp Presents, with support from the likes of Mixmag & BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong. This as well as working with his soulful new band project, Ships of the Pharoahs. Definitely one to watch..

Finally, another remix of 'Equal Measure' comes courtesy of legendary D&B producer, Nu:Tone, who's been active in the scene for over two decades, primarily for the Hospital Records label, working with the likes of 4hero, Ben Westbeech, Flava D, Shy FX, Zed Bias, Roni Size and his brother Logistics, as well as previously remixing artists such as Adele, Ms Dynamite, Emeli Sandé, Lenny Fontana, Quantic & Professor Green, to name a few. For this mix, Nu:Tone turns the original track into a soulful drum & bass roller - a delectably crispy slice of uptempo liquid funk.

This EP exemplifies Georgie's prowess as a vocalist and songwriter, with each track proving to work across a multitude of genres, and cementing her place as one of the most exciting young talents in the game. 

Tracklist:
1. Energy (Children of Zeus Remix)
2. Equal Measure (Don Leisure Remix)
3. Become New (Kaidi Tatham Remix)
4. The Ones We Loved (Last Nubian Remix)
5. Equal Measure (Nu:Tone Remix)