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)

Ike - On Other Dreams: Cairo (Cairo Version)

Following on from the acclaimed On Other Dreams: London EP, featuring SHOLTO, Rachel Kitchlew and David Bardon, Italian producer and musician Isaac de Martin returns with more re-imaginings from 2025's highly praised On Higher Dreams LP, this time recorded in the Egyptian capital.

Last year's debut for Wah Wah 45s blended jazz and electronic influences into warm, evocative, global soundscapes. Having signed to the label, IKE spent much of 2025 between the UK, his Italian homeland and one of his favourite and most inspiring places on earth, Egypt, connecting with musicians and creatives with a view to always expanding his international sound. It was in Cairo, and its surrounding areas, where he engaged with local musicians like nay player Mody El Shaafee, pianist Sherif Moustafa, percussionist Hany Zain and drummer Islam Magdy. Isaac himself explains more:

“In December 2025 I returned to Egypt for the third time, the place where the album first grounded its roots. This time it was for a two-concert tour, which may not sound like much, but considering the distances, the sand, and the people I encountered, it was plenty. Together with six musicians from Cairo we performed at Bahareya Oasis, a six-hour drive south from the capital, and at Heliopolis University, where the music was addressed to the faculty students as it was for the local farmers and workers at the Oasis. I brought some recording equipment with me to capture the Heliopolis concert. Back home I decided to select the same three songs we had recorded in London, mirroring the repertoire between two cities that are at once so similar and so different.” 

Tracklist:
1. SIDDA (Cairo Version)
2. Eventide (Cairo Version)
3. Risorgini (Cairo Version)

IZCO - POWERSCROFT

East London producer and DJ IZCO announces his debut solo studio album ‘POWERSCROFT’, set for release on 1st May via Brownswood Recordings. The album’s first single, ‘Strike a Pose’ featuring the vocals of Camille Munn offers an early glimpse into the project. To celebrate the release, he will go on a run of UK dates from March to May, culminating at London’s Jazz Cafe.

Named after the road where he grew up, ‘POWERSCROFT’ marks a defining new chapter for an artist who has spent the past decade shaping the sound of UK dance music. Drawing from jungle, broken beat, grime, garage, soul and dub, the album channels the energy of the dancefloor while remaining deeply rooted in memory, instinct and identity. It captures what it feels like to be inside IZCO’s world, where thoughts, memories and influences collide.

Hailing from East London, IZCO is a producer and DJ spearheading a new generation that is bringing soul back to the dancefloor. Shaped by the rich musical heritage of his hometown, he has developed a sound that feels familiar yet forward-looking, diverse yet distinctly his own. That sound has taken him across the globe, from New York to Tokyo, alongside standout sets at We Out Here, Outlook and Glastonbury.

IZCO began his journey making grime beats for local rappers including Capo Lee, Novelist and Reek0, before becoming a key figure in the UK’s evolving garage and dance music landscape. In 2018, he launched his long-running Rinse FM show and released his debut EP Tek 5, earning early underground acclaim. His production credits include PinkPantheress’ breakout track ‘Passion’, created alongside Jkarri, as well as collaborations and remixes for artists such as Katy B and Greentea Peng.

Beyond his solo work, IZCO is a label head, promoter and co-founder of the Brighter Days Family, a collective built on community, craft and cooperation. With ‘POWERSCROFT’, he steps fully into the spotlight, presenting his most personal and fully realised body of work to date. “This album is about channeling my true musical personality and character,” he says. “I’m marking a new chapter by paying tribute to my foundations.”

Tracklist:
1. Bluebell
2. Japan Greatly (feat. Reek0 & S.I)
3. Turn Me On
4. Dinero (feat. P Wavey)
5. Down 4 (feat. Osquello)
6. Strike a Pose (feat. Camille Munn)
7. Longest Road (feat. PK)
8. Komodo
9. Somebody Jump (feat. Reek0)
10. Wonderluv
11. Tek Control (feat. Liam Bailey)
12. Guiding Star (feat. Reek0)

Jasmine Myra - Where Light Settles

Saxophonist and composer Jasmine Myra presents nine beautiful and powerfully grounded compositions that express her ruminations on life, growth, and progression, powered by the artist’s vision of duality. “It’s those bittersweet moments which are heart-breaking but so important. Looking forward and trying to make sense of life,” she says. “Pain is unavoidable, and you’ll have hardship no matter what, but you don’t grow or learn about yourself or the world around you without it. The duality is the growth and coming out the other side. I had the concept from the start.”

Jasmine Myra’s verdant musical vision and talent for instrumental storytelling came to life over five days, with her long-standing ensemble gathering in one room at The Nave studios in Leeds with the addition of a string section – all recorded live.

Myra had crossed paths with Ancient Infinity Orchestra bandleader Ozzy Moysey before she moved from Leeds to London, often attending and playing at the same jam sessions. This made him the perfect choice to conduct the 13-piece band, freeing her up to bring maximum tenderness and elegiac tones to the alto sax lines she’d written. Her own playing sits deliberately within each track, never flying above. Instead, it wraps gently around precision melodies she wrote for strings, piano, flute, guitar, vibraphone, and harp which themselves furl and unfurl gorgeously around tenor sax, double bass, drums, and percussion. Melodies that sparkle like sunlight on water.

Tracklist:
1. Opening
2. Reflections
3. Likeness and Shadow
4. Some Rain Must Fall
5. Echo
6. Breath
7. Fragments
8. In an Instant
9. Where Light Settles

Jeff Mills - Whatever The Case

Axis Expressionist Series vol.9

“Suggestiveness and the artistry of it is a realm of magic we mistakenly underestimate.

If wielded effectively, it’s possible to shift opinions and ideas to an unfathomable level.

Quickly, not knowing becomes not caring and not caring becomes anyone’s right to justify not knowing. But beyond the razzmatazz and blinding lights always lies the truth – whatever the case”.   – Millsart

Axis Expressionist Series:

A collection of vinyl releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works. Vernacular creations that fall off from the “other side” of the Electronic Music tree, this project is designed for the experienced Techno music listener, and its goal is to reflect upon the pure artistry of the craft of storytelling. A realization between music and life.  Whereas “dancing” is the goal of Dance Music, the goal of this music is about “reflecting on the complexity and simplification of life”. Soundtracks for people in their evolutionary process.

Tracklist:
1. Blow It Off (What Tongue Do You Speak?)
2. It's
3. Aquarius
4. The Maze

Martyn - Music for Existing

Seven years after the haunting resonance of Voids, electronic pioneer Martyn returns to the album format with Music For Existing. Arriving on 15 May 2026, the record is more than a collection of tracks; it is a profound exploration of what it means to remain devoted to a craft in an era of relentless noise.

The album’s announcement is heralded by the lead single "Heavy Sound." The track serves as the perfect bridge between Martyn’s past and present - a masterclass in tension and release that previews the album’s dialogue between the producer, the musicians, and the audience. We live inside a culture that has prioritised and monetised restlessness. The modern apparatus runs on the continuous production of "next," driven by algorithms that value novelty over depth.

Music For Existing serves as a love letter to the communal act of making music - something that is both healing and inherently defiant. For Martyn, a musician often finds solace in musical conversation with others; in the moment we press record, we simply exist together. This record is an invitation to build human infrastructure around what we love, leaning into the fluid nature of community and seeing exactly where the music takes us when we choose to listen.

The album is a sprawling, "off-the-grid" tapestry that echoes Martyn’s profound appreciation for jazz - free, instinctive, and bursting in every sonic direction. This collection features an expansive cast of collaborators, including Duval Timothy, Dan Only, Lucinda Chua, and Mark Cisneros. The record is further elevated by the contributions of jazz talents Mischa Porte and Cees Bruinsma, alongside the evocative words of writer and poet Musa Okwonga.

While the acoustic textures and improvisational spirit of this record may feel like a departure, they represent a homecoming. Jazz has always been ingrained in Martyn’s work; even in his most stripped-back club tracks, the DNA of swing, syncopation, and free-form structure was always present, if not always visible.

Music For Existing marks the beginning of an exciting journey that will continue from the studio to the stage, celebrating the radical act of existing in the moment. 

Tracklist:
1. Heavy Sound
2. Phantom Jazz
3. No One Plays The Game (feat . Duval Timothy)
4. Hypnotoxic Laser
5. Musa at Erbil
6. Remnants (feat. Duval Timothy & Lucinda Chua)
7. Whiplashed (feat. Mark Cisneros)
8. When The Sleeper Wake

Nostalgia 77 - When The Lights Gone

Long-running jazz, soul, and funk project Nostalgia 77 is the work of British producer, composer and guitarist Benedic Lamdin. Since 2022, he has been blending vintage gear, techniques and sounds with hip-hop production and electronic synths on the likes of Try Thoughts. When The Light's Gone is a reflective set of simple, primary-coloured songs after a period away from personal releases (we hear another album is also planned this year). This one reunites him with Berlin-based singer Yosa, whose earlier collaborations with Nostalgia 77 were hugely popular. Their chemistry is close, with Lamdin describing the record as carrying a "dreamlike, childlike" quality influenced by the transition into family life. A lovely, luminous listen.

Tracklist:
1. You Were In My Dream Last Night
2. Bye Bye
3. When the Lights Gone
4. Stubborn Rhythm
5. Psych
6. Late in the Morning
7. We Tell Our Stories
8. Instrumental Cut

Tema Due - Universo Astratto

Nicola Conte and Nico Lahs’ Tema Due project finally comes to full realization in a double LP entitled “Universo Astratto,” adding a wealth of new musical shades and ideas to the two EPs released on Schema Records in 2025. The album represents not only the natural evolution of their artistic dialogue, but also a statement of intent in terms of sound.

Fans of the most sophisticated and refined club music, elevated by the fusion of exquisite electronica with spiritual jazz (it is no coincidence that the opening track evokes the baseline of “A Love Supreme”), African-American rhythms and tribal percussion, will be thrilled by this complex and multi-layered album, which unveils new hidden details upon each listen.

A meticulous selection of exceptional musicians contributes in a distinctive and significant way to broadening the scope of the project: Giovanni Guidi, Pietro Lussu, and Dario Bassolino on keyboards, Gabriel Prado and Abdissa Assefa on percussion, Magnus Lindgren on wind instruments and Hammond organ, and Pasquale Calò on saxophone. On vocals we have Lalin St. Juste, Siya Makuzeni, Nina Miranda - for what is probably the best track on the album, “Share Your Love” - and Toco - for a new and previously unreleased version of the track “Macumba de Oxalà” featured on the first EP.

In “Universo Astratto,” Tema Due’s vision is finally fulfilled: a world of ancestral grooves, cosmic jazz, and electronic music conceived for clubs as a type of “active experience” in which one is transcended by music. This record is an invitation—to move, to feel, to elevate—and a manifesto for those who see the dance floor not just as a location, but as a shared experience of awareness and rhythm.

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. La Danse De L'Esprit (Radio edit)
3. Share Your Love (Radio Edit)
4. Got To Find The Way (Radio Edit)
5. Astral Vision Of Light
6. Africa Tribale
7. Galaxy Bloom
8. Praise To The Sunshine
9. Song Of Liberation
10. The Shango Cult
11. TShaman's Prophecy
12. Macumba De Oxalà II 

The Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble - The Karman Line

When musicians are on tour, conversations naturally turn to music.

Two years ago, whilst exploring the jazz kissas and record stores of Tokyo, woodwind maestro Chip Whickham and ATA mastermind and bassist Neil Innes discussed their shared influences of Yusef Lateef, David Axelrod and Alice Coltrane. Sounds and concepts percolated, and before long, both musicians were back in Leeds with The Lewis Express to record material for what would become Doo - Ha! (2025).

The compositions for this album were taut, Latin-tinged and distinctly soul jazz, but some of the music happening in the room had a different tonality. Deeper vibrations, more expansive vistas, higher planes. Chip and Neil sensed that something significant was taking place and this material was put aside for safekeeping. It would soon become The Kármán Line.


Tracklist:
1. Kármán Cantata
2. Alto Vento
3. Low Orbit
4. All Is
5. Celestial Matari
6. Earthly Elements
7. Molecules