Azar Azar
Cosmic Drops

DJ Spinna’s imprint Wonderwax returns in 2021 with a brand new installment from Paris-based producer Hugo LX – four new cuts for the club and beyond, showcasing a wide palette of silky textures, smoky synth patches and his signature drum samples. Ranging from house beats to future boogie, detouring through the broken beat path and other high tempo areas, transcenDance is a new step in the beatsmith discography, and a very personal homage to original dance music legacies.Hugo LX quantity

The Brkn Record is a new project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, the co-founder and bass player for the UK’s foundational deep jazz outfit the Heliocentrics. With fellow Heliocentrics co-founder and legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has been a regular collaborator with globally recognised artists including Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, Melvin Van Peebles, Orlando Julius and many others. The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 represents Ferguson’s debut as a bandleader and orchestrator, and manifests as a committed and soulful response to ongoing and systemic anti-black racism, social oppression and state violence both at home in London and across the globe. Combining poetry, testimony and song with rich and cinematic backdrops, Ferguson has produced a sui generis sound that conjures flavours of Arthur Verocai, Ennio Morricone, classic library productions, Madlib-style deep-jazz beat science, and psychedelic soul. With bandmate Malcolm Catto on drums, Ferguson draws on their long years of collaborative experience in the Heliocentrics to build an album of striking texture and depth. But the album does not only reflect Ferguson’s full-spectrum musical prowess, experience and vision. It is equally a manifestation of his longstanding and high-profile work as a frontline activist for racial justice and social equity in London and beyond.

FDPleasure Rooms EPThe North QuarterLenzman's North Quarter label continues to represent for a particular strain of crisp, moody but broadly appealing D&B, and they're welcoming back London-based Freddie Dixon for another EP mere months after the collab 12" with Satl. There's loads to catch a hold of on this record, not least the rabble-rousing 'Mama Told Me' featuring Hella spitting bars over a moody slice of neuro. 'Shawn Kemp' is a taut workout which teases peaks and troughs of intensity around a razor sharp lead line, while 'Double Drizzle' gets a little wobbly in the upper mids for a peak-time mid-set roller. 'Sails' rounds things off on a sentimental tip, letting FD's melodic instincts take the reins with stunning results.

• Black vinyl• Limited Edition of 300'Polygome' is the first release for Piotr Kurek with Hands in the Dark, an artist we consider to be one of the most distinctive creators of instrumental avant-garde music in the last decade.

The re-appraisal of early Seefeel has been long overdue. We're not entirely sure why this hasn't happened before, but to put things into context this is the first time Ch-Vox has been available on vinyl since it debuted in 1996, sidling up alongside the band's other outings dating back to 1994, all of which came about through involvement with Sheffield and global electronic music institution, Warp Records.Ch-Vox actually landed on Rephlex, the imprint founded by Warp regular Richard D James, AKA Aphex Twin, and Grant Wilson-Claridge. Taking us further into the chill-out rooms, Sunday morning comedowns and midweek meditative moods of UK rave, in many ways Ch-Vox is more complex in concept than its predecessor, Succour, helping establish an early framework for what we now know as drone.

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, le mystérieux groupe de steel drum originaire de Hambourg, en Allemagne, s’est fait connaître dans le monde entier. Après deux albums acclamés par la critique, ils ont clairement l’intention de pousser le curseur encore plus loin. De retour avec un troisième album intitulé à juste titre Expansions, Bacao poursuit ses explorations. Reprenant des chansons dans un large spectre musical allant des tubes planétaires aux titres obscures, ils se les approprient avec leur approche unique des percussions steel pan traditionnelles de Trinité-et-Tobago. Une partie de l’attrait d’un nouveau disque de Bacao est de découvrir quelles reprises ils ont choisies. Cependant, les fans purs et durs attendent également d’entendre les nouvelles compositions originales comme le stellaire « Tough Victory » en ouverture du disque. Avec sa section rythmique inébranlable, ses arrangements de cuivres et ses couches de mélodies de pan steel, Bacao ne pourra jamais être défini comme un simple groupe de reprises. Dans les trois morceaux suivants, ils vont du jazz (Galt MacDermot) au hip-hop (Slum Village / J Dilla), en passant par un classique du dancefloor (Grace Jones). Leur reprise du tube de Jay-Z produit par Timbaland, « Dirt Off Your Shoulder », est tout simplement à tomber. Leur version du « I Need Somebody To Love Tonight » de Sylvester avec sa rythmique four-on-the-floor propre au disco n’aidera pas à se relever. Ils s’aventurent également dans le funk avec le « Getting Nasty » d’Ike Turner avant de s’attaquer au classique jazz « Les Fleurs » de Minnie Riperton. Ils rendent hommage à Erykah Badu qui rend elle-même hommage à J Dilla avec « The Healer ». À la seconde où le rythme tombe, la production originale de Madlib en a pour son argent, secouant les subwoofers avec un trémolo de basse surnaturel pendant que les steel pan jouent les mélodies vocales de Badu. Avec son nouvel album, Bacao emmène l’auditeur dans un voyage qui couvre une myriade d’énergies, de tempos et d’ambiances tout en réussissant à conserver une unité. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band insuffle une nouvelle vie aux originaux et continue de repousser les limites de la musique steel pan, ou plutôt, comme le titre l’indique, de l’élargir.The latest must-cop record from the good people at Big Crown is a real summer special. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band serve up some seriously soul-enriching grooves, with the impossibly warm and good time vibes that come from steel drums on each and every one. The beats are rooted in funk, with fat bass and expressive horn work bring each one to life. There are sojourns into dub, disco and jazz, and the whole thing bris with so much character and personality that it cannot but put a smile on your face.