Mobb Deep
The Infamous

In the liner notes for Jazzamatazz, Guru explained, "jazz's mellow tracks, along with the haerd rap beat, go hand-in-glove with my voice." Truer words were never said, and in 1993 the Gang Starr legend proved the point by releasing one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. The link between hip-hop and jazz was already in the air, but Guru crystalised it in no uncertain terms, pulling in a heavyweight list of singers and players like N'Dea Davenport, Donald Byrd, Courtney Pine, Lonnie Liston Smith and more besides to realise his vision. Guru's sultry tone sits in the bed of warm musicianship like butter on toast, and this reissue means you can pick it up in pristine condition and hear it pouring out of those grooves. If ever an album was made for vinyl, this would be it.

2021 repress. All MF Doom albums are repressed this year. No worries.

Jamaica Original.

Laminated Skies is the new album by Jason Moore aka Raw Poetic, produced alongside friend and frequent collaborator Earl Davis aka Damu the Fudgemunk and featuring guest musicians Pat "P" Fritz on guitar and Luke Stewart on bass. Sessions for ‘Laminated Skies’ took place in the sweltering summer heat in 2019 at Windom Road studio in Brentwood, Maryland; with Damu’s production adding a tapestry of instrumentation including live and programmed drums, strings, vibraphone, kalimba, melodica, vinyl scratching and synthesizers. Musically pulling from the genres that make hip hop; the multidimensional work also draws inspiration from Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man, spirituals, and their individual influences -, on which Jason says “I was an English major, Luke is a jazz bassist, Pat a classically trained guitarist, and Earl brought in a wealth of knowledge that funneled us through a direction that worked.”

BIRTHMARK / WITHDRAWN / SUNUN / VMO$ / BOOFYCL 002Cold Light MusicHand-stamped and numbered white label with A4 insert. Edition of 250Dank, modern Bristol trip hop vibes from scene regulars such as VMO$ & Boofy, plus new names Birthmark, Withdrawn, and Sunun, all rounded up by new label; Cold LightOne for the smokers and night owls, ‘CL002’ proves that the enervated energy of Avon’s bassy epicentre is still glowing like embers of an old fire, coming with the blunted shunt and bloo haze of Birthmark, who sounds like he’s got the flu on ‘Haunted’, before lending a slightly less sluggish turn on Withdrawn’s ‘I Have Known Rivers’. Sunun follows on the flip with a findus crispy cut of BoC-like flutes overgrown with vinyl crackle and a web of insectoid percussion, leaving VMO$ & Boofy to shut the lights off with a blushing crush of screwed R&B, Houston-via-Bristol style.