Colin Curtis
Jazz Dance Fusion Volume Four (Part One)

Re-mixed and re-mastered at Gondwana's home from home, 80 Hertz studios in Manchester , pressed on vinyl for the very first time, ON THE GO appears here in an extended format that adds three new tracks alongside the original album !Manchester based, DJ, bandleader and trumpeter Matthew Halsall is a gifted trumpeter with a beautiful, expressive tone, his music draws on his love of the transcendental, spiritual and modal jazz of Alice and John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as the glories of '60s British jazz.His previous albums 'Sending My Love' and 'Colour Yes' released on his own Gondwana label have won him a legion of fans across the world and acclaim from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Radio 3's Late Junction, MOJO, BBC Music Magazine and even BBC 6 Music.His third album 'On The Go' is a heartfelt love letter to the jazz of the late '50s and early '60s. Inspired by the evocative sounds of Miles Davis' soundtrack to the Louis Malle film 'Lift To The Scaffold' and the legendary early '60s recordings of Art Blakey and Max Roach the album is nostalgic but always soulful. However, while Halsall's elegiac music is imbued with a sense of history, the young trumpeter and DJ nevertheless brings a contemporary bounce to his music ensuring that his music breathes with a personality all it's own.

Parisian label Chuwanaga is really proud to present In The Red Vol. 2 (A Britfunk Selection by Saint-James), almost a year and a half after the first compilation being released. This second volume still focus on the Britfunk genre - or British Jazz-Funk - mainly produced in London between the end of the seventies and the eighties. It defines a unique mix of Jazz-Funk & Disco including Reggae & Dub techniques from Afro-Caribbean communities who were at the heart of the movement.Parisian DJ, activist and producer Saint-James has again selected the most exciting, rare and powerful tracks from that era (1981-1988). Included in this compilation are Stikki Stuff, Cruzial, Potion, The Breakfast Band, Yeow Band and Scratch (better known as Gonzalez). Expect powerful synth solos, crazy slap bass grooves and lovely vocals on the top when the horn section is not busy doing its funky thing.Back in the days, these young musicians gave their music a unique British flavor and raw energy pushing the needle "In The Red". Almost four decades later on these powerful tracks are again ready to burn up dancefloors. The compilation features an insert with pictures and a few more words about the selection.

A really fantastic entry in this really great series – one that shows just how strongly the spirit of invention continued in the world of Japanese music as it moved into the 80s!As with previous volumes, the work here is a unique hybrid of influences from American and Japanese sources – partly based in jazz, but also with a fair bit of funk and soul too – modes that are used more directly here than on some of the more polished city pop work of the time – which means that if you like the sweet sound of American electric jazz funk of the late 70s, you'll find plenty to love here too!

Copenhagen-based Jason Dungan, aka Blue Lake arrives on Tonal Union with a stunning album built around inquisitive approaches to zithers, drones, clarinets, slide guitar and drum machines. It's a pastoral record first and foremost, but it's not bound by musical tradition and instead uses the impetus of post rock as a motivation to explore expressive, evocative spaces through composition and instrumentation. There are countless moments of shimmering beauty scattered throughout this vibrant album, which respond to the time he spent isolated in a remote part of Sweden while crafting the bulk of the music.