Charles Mingus
Presents Charles Mingus

Recorded live at Masuda City in October 1978 and originally issued as a tiny private pressing, ‘Introducing…’ showcased the Hideyasu Terakawa Quartet at their finest. Fronted by the great Japanese jazz saxophonist and featuring bassist Tetsuo Miura, drummer Akihiro Nakaya plus multi-disciplinary artist Hiroshi Fuji, it features incredible reinterpretations of jazz standards by Western artists such as Wayne Shorter.

Vol. 2 is the second and rarest album recorded by the legendary Cortex, the obscure French jazz and funk group that's been a favorite of collectors for years. Originally released in 1977 and reissued last in 2002 by Follow Me Records, it's now back in stock in a final limited repressing of 500 copies, reissued by Trad Vibe Records under official license from band leader Alain Mion. It really is an absolutely killer album, filled with dope jazz-funk tracks. Unlike their first album, it's all instrumental (save for a few chants on "Poxa"), and it leans even more heavily on the groove side, in a funky Blaxploitation kind of way. The group's got a strong fusion-driven groove on this set -- with plenty of tight drumming, hard riffing, and spacey keyboards that give the tunes a nicely soulful finish. The best tracks are actually the mellower ones, which have a nice use of space and sound -- creating strong little patterns of groove that stand out from the rest of the tracks. Lots of work on Fender Rhodes, mini Korg, Hammond, and clavinet

From an ardent blogger to an in-demand compiler, Paul Hillery's obsessive approach to music discovery has taken him far. As well as working with the likes of BBE, he's been fostering a working relationship with Re:Warm which now yields a second volume of the fantastic Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours series. The title is instructive, and somewhere in the folds of private press joints and forgotten album cuts Hillery finds a thread which binds together seemingly disparate sounds. There's delicate singer-songwriter seances from the likes of Lucy Kitchen and psychedelic, roving magic from Stallions remixing Findlay Brown and much more besides.