V.A. – Coming Home (Compiled by Nightmares on Wax) (2009)

1. Places and Spaces – Donald Byrd
2. So Proud of You [Gelka Remix] – Lee Everton
3. Healer – Erykah Badu
4. Those Good, Good Old Days – Jimmy Cliff
5. Man’s Talk – Roots Manuva
6. Love Is Universal – Johnny Osbourne
7. Soon – Gelka
8. Got What I Want – Deadbeats
9. Hold On – Mr. Scruff
10. Feeling (Rapscallion’s Got Jah Feeling) – Nightmares on Wax
11. Build It Up – Negghead
12. Book of Rules – The Heptones
13. I’ve Fallen in Love with You – Carla Thomas
14. After the Dance [Instrumental Version] – Marvin Gaye
15. Damn [Marcel Remix] – Nightmares on Wax
16. Esq – The Hungry Ghost
17. Metis – Guts
18. Del Ray – Sola Rosa

2009 installment in the Coming Home series, this time compiled by DJ E.A.S.E. (AKA Nightmares On Wax). Everybody has the right to feel good. And with that in mind, this selection of music sanctions that right. With great pleasure and a wide smile, the Stereo Deluxe label opens the next chapter in that big and ever expanding book of comfy audio delight, known to many as the well established Coming Home series. Following up on seriously personal selections by Tim Love Lee and Nouvelle Vague, this Coming Home volume provides a truly individual choice of stand out tunes selected by George Evelyn aka E.A.S.E., the positive force behind Nightmares On Wax. This N.O.W. volume fuses many styles, moods and genres. There’s a certain amount of contemporary dj friendly electronica in the mix  – from  funk via deep 21st century soul, down to grimey future sounds and back – but there’s also those real „classics“ too (e.g. Jimmy Cliff, Johnny Osbourne, Carla Thomas, The Heptones a.o.). There is UK rap by Roots Manuva – and a true Erykah Badu anthem celebrating hip hop culture. Eclectic beat wizardry by  Mr. Scruff – and the sounds of Marvin Gaye, too. Guaranteed to make you feel just at home. It’s all in the mix… united by pure positivity, inna N.O.W. stylee.

Ralph Towner & Paolo Fresu – Chiaroscuro (2009)

1. Wistful Thinking
2. Punta Giara
3. Chiaroscuro
4. Sacred Place
5. Blue in Green
6. Doubled Up
7. Zephyr
8. The Sacred Place(reprise)
9. Two Miniatures
10. Postlude

Launch of a new duo with a most uncommon instrumentation, acoustic guitar and trumpet – but it’s a highly attractive combination. Ralph Towner, guitarist extraordinaire, an ECM artist since 1972, is joined by Italian trumpet star Paolo Fresu, making his label debut for ECM. Bright melodies and subtle colours prevail in a programme of old and new Ralph Towner compositions, plus improvisations, and a favourite from Kind of Blue era Miles Davis. The choice of “Blue In Green” as the sole cover version here says something about the aesthetic priorities of both musicians. These are players who understand the power of silence and melodic clarity. Fresu’s trumpet playing, with his clear vibratoless sound, has often been compared with that of Miles Davis. Towner first encountered Fresu 15 years ago, at a festival in Sardinia where the guitarist had been commissioned to write music for an ensemble. Paolo was the trumpet player. “From the first phrase he played I thought: wow, this guy really understands melodies!” The piece played that day, “Punta Giara”, is revisited here. “Sacred Place” and “Doubled Up” are the first recordings to feature Ralph’s new baritone guitar, tuned a fifth below standard guitar tuning. The instrument, reaching down for the deep notes, wonderfully balances Fresu’s flugelhorn. Elsewhere Ralph’s classical guitar sings in its unique way. Perfect moments, like a flaring of fireworks.Chiaroscuro is Ralph Towner’s 22nd album as a leader for ECM, in a discography with well over 30 titles. Alongside the landmark recordings like Diary, Solstice and Batik, this one has all the hallmarks of a classic.

Alessandro Magnanini – Someway Still I Do (2009)

1. Open Up Your Eyes (featuring Jenny B.)
2. Living’ My Life (featuring Liam McKahey)
3. So Long, Goodbye (featuring Jenny B.)
4. Secret Lover (featuring Jenny B.)
5. Greeting From Here
6. But Not For You (featuring Liam McKahey)
7. Someway Still I Do (featuring Liam McKahey)
8. Stay Into My Life (featuring Renata Tosi)
9. L’Estate E’ Qua (featuring Rosalia De Souza)
10. Suddenly
11. Something Fine (featuring Stefania Rava)
12. Blind Date Blues

A real rising star on Schema Records — composer Alessandro Magnanini, best known for his hit with Mario Biondi — stepping out here in a beautiful album of his own original music! There’s a fresh feel here that really opens up a new chapter at Schema — still a bit of their old jazz/bossa vibe, but with a more expansive quality too — one that embraces bits of Bacharach, snaps of 60s soundtracks, and gentler jazzier passages too — all put together by a group that features key talents from the contemporary Italian scene — like vocalists Rosalia De Souza and Stefania Rava, trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso, and other instrumentalists on vibes, piano, tenor, and trombone. Most instrumentation is live — scored nicely, but not enough so that it loses the spontaneity of jazz — and other vocals are by Jenny B and Liam McKahey. The work is really beautiful — still mostly upbeat, but hardly just the stuff of dancefloor grooving too — key proof that Maganini’s a big talent to watch in years to come.

Boards Of Canada – Geogaddi (2002)

1. Ready Lets Go
2. Music Is Math
3. Beware The Friendly Stranger
4. Gyroscope
5. Dandelion
6. Sunshine Recorder
7. In The Annexe
8. Julie & Candy
9. The Smallest Weird Number
10. 1969
11. Energy Warning
12. The Beach At Redpoint
13. Opening The Mouth
14. Alpha & Omega
15. I Saw Drones
16. The Devil Is In The Details
17. 6A Is To B As B Is To C
18. Over The Horizon Radar
19. Dawn Chorus
20. Diving Station
21. You Could Feel The Sky
22. Corsair
23. Magic Windows

24. “From One Source All Things Depend” – bonus track

The eagerly awaited follow up to the 1998 neo classic Music Has The Right To Children arrived wearing a shroud of mystery, sandals of secrecy and enigma earrings. Geogaddi is a tapestry of strange contrasts. Sweeping synths, crunchy drum patterns and the distorted voices of children weave in and out to create a surreal ‘third place’. The ruminant paranoia evident in “Dawn Chorus” is as hypnotic as it is disorienting. Loping beats wrestle with melodies possessed by a blatant disregard for time signature to generate a seasonally affected musicscape. This is electronica put out to graze on the hillsides for fifteen years. At times BOC invite you to stand with them as they gaze out over the majestic, Scottish highlands surveying an early sunset as it explodes across the horizon. At others they leave you stranded in your flat at 3am wondering whether that strange noise is your speakers on the blink or the mayonnaise growling at you from inside the fridge. Either way, its unlikely you will have heard anything quite like this. Essential.

V.A. – A History Of Schema – Il Giorno Della Mimosa (2008)

1. s-tone inc – naked ground
2. gerardo frisina – beyond the moon
3. the dining rooms – no problem (7 samurai vocal mix)
4. cabaret noir – waltz for debbie
5. gerardo frisina bluesanova
6. nicola conte – fuoco fatuo (nicola conte remix)
7. cabaret noir – on a sunday morning
8. nicola conte – love me till sunday
9. s-tone inc – beira do mar
10. soulstance – the time
11. soulstance – angel eyes
12. rosalia de souza – adriana (performed by the five corners quintet)
13. s-tone inc – some kind of blues

Compiled By Sumie Mishima. Another great Schema compilation for you to enjoy.

Lars Danielsson – Melange Bleu (2006)

01. Mélange Bleu
02. Makro
03. Les Coulisses
04. Ironside
05. Judas Bolero
06. Minor People
07. Sketches of Twelve
08. Naive
09. Bacchanalia
10. After Zero

Listed under “Nu-Jazz” in ACT’s catalogue, this beautifully procuced record treads the border between music founded on electronic beats and that more typical of ECM’s classic contemplative style. Although I find the ‘Nu’ tracks to be most successful – a compelling mixture of rhythm, driven by acoustic bass and subtle electronic percussion, and lush, atmospheric soundscapes, provided by real orchestaral strings, adeptly distributed samples, and dreamy, restrained contributions from the likes of Nils Petter Molvaer, Eivind Aarset andt – the whole album offers a splendid, melodic, romantic excursion for over an hour. With some of the most intrepid aural explorers on the Norwegian scene, Danielsson finds his own nexus point among sumptuous grooves, temporal elasticity, dense soundscapes and sparser ambience. Improvisation is an integral part of the mix, but it’s as much about the extemporaneous development of texture as it is more conventional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic interaction (though there’s plenty of that to be found as well).

Rosalia De Souza – Brasil Precisa Balancar (2006)

1. Onde Anda O Meu Amor
2. Voz Da Lapa – Rosalia de Souza, Toco
3. Que Bandeira – Rosalia de Souza, Marcos Valle
4. Ao Amigo Tom
5. Brasil Precisa Balançar
6. Jogo de Roda
7. Agarradinho
8. Nem Que Seja a Nado – Rosalia de Souza
9. Rio de Janeiro
10. Mar Amar
11. Um Novo Dia
12. Vivo Sonhando
13. O Que é Amar

The best work so far from Rosalia De Souza — a session that features production and guitar from bossa legend Roberto Menescal, and a sound that’s deeper and even more classic than any of Rosalia’s other work! Most of the instrumentation here is in an older acoustic mode — piano, percussion, and horns arranged by Menescal with that beautifully lighter than air style that he first pioneered in the 60s — an approach that lets Rosalia’s vocals drift along on wonderfully gentle rhythms, and dominate the record even more than before. Given that the set’s on Schema, there’s still a nicely rhythmic component to most numbers — but overall, the record’s a bold step forward even for the label — similar to the all-acoustic move made by Nicola Conte in his own recordings! Marcos Valle joins in on vocals on “Que Bandeira”, and other tunes include “Onde Anda O Meu Amor”, “Voz Da Lapa”, “Jogo De Roda”, “Rio De Janeiro”, “Mar Amar”, “Um Novo Dia”, and “Vivo Sonhando”.

Nicola Conte – Sketches Of Samba EP (2008)

1. Groovy Samba
2. Solo
3. The Nubien Queen feat. Jose James (Samba Version)
4. Paper Clouds feat. Kim Sanders (Uptempo Version)

Sublime samba grooves from the great Nicola Conte — one of his most 60s-styled recordings yet, and that’s saying a heck of a lot, given his other work! The set definitely lives up to its title — jazzy sketches of samba tunes, two by Conte, the other two by Sergio Mendes and JT Meirelles — all played by hip small combos with some especially nice guest work from Fabrizio Bosso on trumpet, Timo Lassy on flute, and both Kim Sanders and Jose James on vocals! Although only an EP, the set’s got a depth that’s wonderful — and features four tracks that are supposedly exclusive to the set — making it essential, even if you’re budgeting for other Conte full length sets.

V.A. – Modern Sound Of Nicola Conte – Versions In Jazz-Dub (2009)

CD1

01. mark murphy – stolen moments (midnight mood rework)
02. thunderball – elevated states
03. akiko – mood indigo
04. fertile ground – yellow daisies
05. [re:jazz] – quiet nights (out of the cool version)
06. nicola conte jazz combo – when i wish upon a star
07. bitter sweet – heaven (west coast vibes remix)
08. nicola conte jazz combo feat. jos james – all or nothing at a
09. nicola conte jazz combo – new blues*
10. maki mannami – lotus sun
11. the dining rooms – flamenco sketches (new rumba version)
12. nicola conte – charade*
13. nicola conte jazz combo – castles in the rain

CD2

01. till bronner – so danco samba (nicola conte rework)
02. sabrina malheiros – terra de ninguem
03. nicola conte jazz combo – solo
04. marco di marco – take off (campis idea version)
05. the five corners quintet – three corners (for friends and rela
06. roberto roena – take five (nicola conte remix)
07. bobby hughes combination – kerma elastica (nicola conte remix)
08. povo – you are
09. Luisito quintero – our love
10. nicola conte jazz combo – groovy samba
11. sunaga t experience – no reason no rhyme (mode for tatsuo)
12. sunaga t experience – a healing blue (shape of jazz to come version)
13. nicola conte jazz combo – black is the graceful veil (acoustic version)

A long-overdue collection of all the mixes, side-projects, and rare “Nicola Conte version” tracks that have cropped up in the past decade or so work that’s every bit as great as the material Conte includes on his own albums and singles! Nicola Conte’s not a remixer  he’s a re-imaginer  and when he sets out to serve up his own version of a track, he often starts from scratch using his own band, his own arrangements, and his own key elements  all of which turn any projects for other artists into grooves that are very Conte-directed  the kind of classic jazz-infused gems that Nicola’s been laying down on his own Schema Records label for over a decade! This double-disc set is filled with amazing work that Conte’s done for other folks  and it also include a few rare and unreleased tracks under his own name as well  a massive helping of music that’s really mindblowing throughout  sure to please any fan of Nicola, as well as anyone who digs the artists included in the package.

Nola Grey & Parov Stelar – Starlight (2009)

1. Starlight (radio version)
2. Starlight (club version)

You are looking for the real groove, the unforgetable hookline with a floorfilling break? Well, step in and enjoy NOLA GREY´s world. Starlight gives a shit and don´t cares about genres or categories. It´s a unique piece of music for your personal primetime on the dancefloors. Nothing more to say…..let the music play!

Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen – Inspiration Information 4 (2009)

01. Against The Wall
02. Sinuhe
03. Selfish Gene
04. Path To Wisdom
05. Darker Side Of Night
06. Mama England
07. Got My Egusi
08. Cella’s Walk
09. Three Continents

Inspiration Information is an ongoing experimental project that mixes and matches artists from quite different backgrounds – but with certain things in common – for a limited amount of studio time to see what they can come up with. This fourth offering is perhaps the most unlikely pairing yet, but one of the most engaging and fully realised albums in the series so far. A truly inspired choice from Strut’s Inspiration Information series of collabs has lead to this album from Finnish electronic jazz maverick Jimi Tenor and the architect of the Afrobeat rhythm, Tony Allen. After a week spent in the studio the resultant album sounds like the pair have been at this for years, with Tenor’s jazzed-up sax, keys and flute gelling perfectly around Allen’s bristling rhythm section. Tony Allen is among the world’s most acclaimed kit drummers, famed for having co-created afrobeat with Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti during the 1970s and currently enjoying a late-flowering renaissance in his seventh decade. Although he knew nothing of Jimi Tenor beforehand, Allen was one of five artists Tenor told Strut he would most like to work with when they approached him.The session was mixed down at Tenor’s studio in Fnland and Berlin, lending a distinctly dubby but vintage classic sound to the set, helping to erase any blatant time markers and make this the Electric-Afrobeat-Jazz-Fusion classic that never happened, until now! Tip!

Flevans – 27 Devils (2009)

01. Hold On (feat. Sarah Scott)
02. Pretty From A Distance
03. 27 Devils
04. More On The Way (feat. Shona Foster)
05. Mad Perks
06. On & Out (feat. Sarah Scott)
07. Endless Things
08. Flicker
09. All To Play For (feat. Shona Foster)
10. Hold No Water
11. Lay Back (feat. Sarah Scott)
12. Neckbone

A melting pot of styles and sounds, glorious songs and dancefloor bombs, multi-instrumentalist Flevans’ third album sees him going totally sample-free and taking the plunge into full live instrumentation, with stunning results. ‘27 Devils’ is laden with irresistible hooks and dotted with charismatic vocal performances from guest stars Sarah Scott and Shona Foster, and Flevans himself. As a trained multi-instrumentalist (Flevans plays guitar, bass and piano amoungst others), Flevans had always incorporated some of his playing skills into his music, and after the release of ‘Unfabulous’ decided to throw out all the vinyl that he had previously sampled from, and move towards creating a more organic, live sound, free of samples. A big reason for this move was his involvement playing bass for Brighton band Backini the previous year – during his time in the band they played at Abbey Road Studios, Glastonbury and recorded a live Radio 1 set at Maida Vale studios – and this re-ignited his love of playing. More diverse and polished than any of his previous releases, it features the incredible vocals of Sarah Scott and Shona Foster, as well as several instrumental cuts, covering styles from funk, breaks, electronica and soul, all with Flevans’ original style and sound.

The New Mastersounds – Be Yourself (2003)

1. This Ain’t Work
2. Your Love Is Mine – New Mastersounds & Corinne Bailey Rae
3. Can’t Hold Me Down
4. Be Yourself
5. Better Off Dead
6. You’ve Had It All
7. Barca
8. Six Underground
9. Coming Up Roses
10. RTA
11. Do What You Gotta Do
12. Idel Time – New Mastersounds & LSK
13. This Ain’t Work

The New Mastersounds return with another funk album of classic proportion. Be Yourself sounds like it could have been recorded live, with its no-messing, just-let-the-music-speak-for-itself production (as it would’ve been in the ’70s). The songs have a refreshing quality that don’t tend to focus on one theme throughout and cover a multitude of tempos and styles including jazz, funk and soul. Whether it be the crisp, rolling drums or the intricate guitar work – and not forgetting the Booker-T style Hammond organ – it’s extremely difficult to pin-point a standout instrument or musician. With that in mind one has to conclude that it’s ALL GOOD. With their most recent offering – Leeds band The New Mastersounds have expanded upon their established pure funk template to include a subtler spectrum of textures, drawing upon a more relaxed jazz and soul approach to augment their usual blistering up-tempo attack. The album changes things up nicely from track to track, going for grooves that blend in a lot of different modes, and which show the group to be really expanding their format.

Nostalgia 77 Sessions – Featuring Keith & Julie Tippett (2009)

01. You Don’t Just Dream When You Sleep
02. Film Blues
03. Sketch for Gary / Billy Goes to Town
04. Mice
05. Rainclouds
06. Lapis Blue
07. Soothing the Rattlesnake
08. Miniature
09. Vienna
10. Visions
11. Okinawa
12. Temple
13. Four Whispers for Archie’s Chair
14. New Inner City Blues

One of the deepest records ever from Nostalgia 77 . An intriguing marriage of youth and experience, ‘Nostalgia 77 Sessions Featuring Keith & Julie Tippett’ sees prodigious producer Nostalgia 77 and close contemporary Riaan Vosloo (Nostalgia 77 Octet, Twelves Trio) collaborating with legendary British exponents of avant-garde contemporary music, Keith and Julie Tippett. The album’s even more jazz-based than other recent Nostalgia 77 work — and both Tippetts figure heavily in the sound — Keith on sharp-edged piano lines that haven’t sounded this good in many years, and Julie singing both wordlessly and with lyrics, in dark-toned lines that really remind us what a revolutionary singer she can be! Some tracks have a slow-burning groove, while others get a bit out at points — and the always-solid basslines of Riaan Vosloo really help ground the whole proceedings. The appearance of veteran English artists Keith and Julie Tippett makes producer Benedic Lamdin’s Nostalgia 77 Sessions an interesting prospect, with much of that promise realised over the album’s 14 songs. The music covers the ground between blues, soul and jazz, but it’s the left turns taken by the two stars that make it such an intriguing success.

Gerardo Frisina – Samba Skindim EP + Gerardo Frisina Introduces Emily Jones EP (2009)

Incredible grooves from Gerardo Frisina — only an EP, but a package of tracks that has all the depth of his full length albums! The sound here is almost all acoustic — save for a bit of rhythms from Paolo Fedreghini — real 60s-styled bossa/samba jazz, played by a tight combo that features heavy percussion, piano, tenor sax, and trumpet — all grooving away with a massively tight sound throughout! The set’s almost Frisina’s answer to the club jazz styles popping up in recent years from other European acts — showing that he was doing things first, and can still do them best. Andrea Maia sings lead vocals on two tracks — again with a really classic feel — and the instrumental numbers feature some especially great work from the tenor sax, played by Germano Zenga. Titles include “Samba Skindim”, “For My Mother”, “Solo”, and “EJ Estou Aqui”.

A jazzy little single from Schema — the first two sides from singer Emily Jones, who we’re sure will soon be doing great things for the label! Lo Greco back up Jones on both numbers — bringing a solid acoustic groove into play with their loping lines on bass and drums — supported with additional jazzy instrumentation on piano, alto, tenor, and trumpet — all wrapped up warmly by Gerardo Frisina with a hell of a great groove! “If Dreams Come True” has Jones singing in this breezy, wordless style — skipping along with the rhythms beautifully — and “Espontaneo” has a bit more of a Brazilian flavor at the bottom, a cool bossa groove that’s a perfect fit for Emily’s singing!

Chris Joss – You’ve Been Spiked (2004)

01. Discotheque Dancing
02. You’ve Been Spiked
03. Drink Me Hot
04. Wrong Alley Street (part 1)
05. Riviera 69
06. Shellah V.
07. Wrong Alley Street (part 3)
08. Waves of Love
09. A Part In That Show
10. Early Morning Wanderings
11. Waking Up In The Park
12. The Man With The Suitcase (bonus track)
13. The Wait (bonus track)

French producer/DJ Chris Joss has spiked the musical cocktail with an intoxicating mix of funky bass lines, wah guitars, and Hammond keys which pulsate over rooty sounding drums. With a dose of obscure samples, scratching and retro-futurist ambiances, Mssr. Joss creates a truly unique cinematic universe. Multi-instrumentalist/DJ/producer Chris Joss presents his acid jazzy electronica with a wonderful combination of quirk and cool. He’s as much David Holmes as he is Thievery Corporation, and as retro as he is future. All these qualities make You’ve Been Spiked a feel-good record for cool cats and one of those “if you ain’t dancing, you must be dead” albums. There are the usual wah-wah guitars, Hammond organs, and Italian soundtrack moments that the Thievery Corporation and their ESL roster love so much, but rarely are the pieces put together with such purpose. Barely anything sounds sampled and even though Joss is a one-man band, instruments play off one another like it’s a live jam session.

Waldeck – Make My Day

The Incredible Bongo Band – Bongo Rock (2006)

1. Let There Be Drums
2. Bongolia
3. Kiburi (part 1)
4. Apache
5. Sing Sing Sing
6. Dueling Bongos
7. In-a-gadda-da-vida
8. Raunchy ‘73
9. Bongo Rock ‘73
10. Hang Down Your Head
11. Sharp Nine
12. Okey Dokey
13. Pipeline
14. When The Bed Breaks
15. I Can’t Get No Satisfaction
16. Wipeout
17. Last Bongo In Belgium
18. Got The Sun In The Morning
19. Slightly Reminiscent Of Topsy

The Incredible Bongo Band was never actually a real band. During MGM studios downtime, whichever studio musicians were on hand were recruited to play during these recording sessions. This also included many well known musicians, but all musicians went uncredited for these recordings. In 1973 they released Bongo Rock and then in 1974 Return of the Incredible Bongo Band. This compilation is all the songs from both of those records.
They say the best results in life come through happy accident, and in the case of The Incredible Bongo Band’s Bongo Rock this philosophy couldn’t be any more conclusive. Formed by MGM A&R Michael Viner in 1972 to supplement the soundtrack to the virtually anonymous B film “The Thing With Two Heads”, The IBB went from loose studio collective to an instrumental pop covers consortium, interpreting classics of the day in their own inimitable percussive fashion. Contained is the two original albums produced by Viner and Perry Botkin Jnr, that feature the Hip-Hop National anthem “Apache”, adjacent to a host of rhythmic instrumentals that utilise some of the hottest drummers of the day, including Jim Gordon and King Errisson. Spanning between melodic horn led interludes, Hammond swells and razor sharp electric guitars each track has its own literal bongo breakdown with enough beats and pieces to satisfy the most hungry of S3000’s, and retro junkies alike. Falling somewhere amid library music and timpani funk this is another valuable lesson in the history of the music industry courtesy of re-issue specialists Strut. –Found Sounds

Sam Paglia – Electric Happiness (2009)

01.Vespa Soul
02.Unkamunka Walk
03.Bobsamnova
04.Una Donna Scimmia
05.Greasy
06.Hotel Ukraina
07.Wandrø
08.Electric Happiness
09.Mundial ‘70
10.Sammy’s Dream
11.Fried Noodles
12.La Nebbia Gratis
13.Uncle David
14.Let The Music Be The One

The grooviest set we’ve heard so far from Sam Paglia — no surprise, given that he’s issued this album on the ultra-cool DejaVu label! As on previous Paglia efforts, the keyboards are strongly in the lead on most numbers — mostly Hammond, but also some Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer piano, clavinet, and moog — all sweet keys used in a variety of settings, from 60s mod soul, to slow-stepping bossa, moogy madness, and more upbeat funk! A number of cuts are instrumental, but there’s also a few vocal numbers too — sung by Sandra Cartolari on a few soulful tracks.

Moca – Wroooooooooam (2003)

01. Jazz Tip
02. Clarke boland
03. Kippchen
04. Atombits
05. Flotter Tag
06. Der Springende Punkt
07. So Funky
08. A40 Bei Nacht, Linke Spur
09. Diskus
10. Gruntee
11. Funky Plusch
12. Too Far Out

The German act Moca’s first full-length album slips excitingly between categories, and by its hard-to-categorize nature is infinitely more interesting and listenable than the sorts of albums where the listener hears four measures and can already peg exactly which of the myriad subcategories of electronic dance music to slot it into. At its base, Wroooooooam is pure old-school house, early ’90s style, with its prominent, easy-to-digest beats and occasional snippets of soul-diva vocals. But on top of that, there’s more than a little downtempo mellowness (never so much that the album is in any danger of slipping into the muzak-like background wash of so many downtempo releases), and most obviously, there’s a huge influence here from plain old-fashioned ’60s soul-jazz and groovy ’70s fusion: wah-wah guitars that will have you checking the musician credits for George Benson’s name, funky electric piano and clavinet parts, and more vintage synths than can be found this side of a Stereolab flipside. Most importantly, however, there’s some real skill here not only in putting together slick and danceable grooves, but also compelling, sturdy melodies to go on top of them. Wroooooooam is the sort of album that even people who don’t normally go for this kind of thing can love. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide