For a band that named itself after the first dog in outer space – and previous albums called Sounds of the Satellites and Silver Apples of the Moon – you'd think Laika would make spacey ambient music with a focus on quirky beats. And they do, sometimes. The emphasis, though, of Good Looking Blues, the London quartet's third album, is to give equal attention to Margaret Fiedler's smooth, somewhat gothic-and-soul-influenced vocals and the band's mixture of rock, slow electronic, and sit-on-your-couch dance music. Fiedler, who went to grade school with Liz Phair in Winnetka, Illinois and later played in a Smiths-sounding college band with Moby, speak-sings dark fictional stories about life's basic themes: love, sex, death, and work. But it's not quite that simple. For instance, on one of the album's standouts, "Black Cat Bone," she tells a story of a woman who kills her evil husband with voodoo: "Rocks for my pillow and sand for my bed/For better or worse, I left him for dead." Laika's talent is crafting a particular mood.

Marcella Puppini is a singer-songwriter. She is the founder of The Puppini Sisters, a radio presenter on Shoreditch Radio, an orchestra conductor and the lead singer of Marcella and The Forget Me Nots. Ex designer for Vivienne Westwood in late 90s London, ex Mayoress of Camden, founder, in 2004, of close-harmony trio The Puppini Sisters who are considered as the world’s authority on vocal harmony for their unique arrangements and vocal technique, with over half a million copies sold throughout the world and collaborations with Michael Bublè. Musical Director of large scale Burlesque and Variety shows in some of London’s best theatres and clubs, leader and founder of indie-rock-Weimar Marcella and The Forget Me Nots, and the only female guest conductor of the prestigious Russian Jazz band The George Garanian Big Band.

The Puppini Sisters' fifth studio album, The High Life, is the trio's first with Emma Smith joining original members Marcella Puppini and Kate Mullins. Aside from new membership, the vocal group stays the course, offering more of their close-knit, three-part harmonies on versions of big-band classics, a couple of original songs, and swing era-inspired rearrangements of more contemporary hits. The trio holds a few surprises in its selections of the latter, such as a medley of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Sia's "Chandelier," and a fluid cover of Missy Elliott's "Work It." Their take on "Rapper's Delight" works especially well, riding the original's natural swing.

Caro Emerald's album The Shocking Miss Emerald is the follow up to her smashing debut album Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor, which sold over 2 million albums worldwide, making Miss Emerald one of the Top 5 most successful female artists in Europe. This stellar new cd picks up where her debut left off, serving an album of edgy, vivid, romantic and intense songs, all tied together with a 40s Parisian haute couture bow. Caro Emerald is a modern woman with a timeless classic style, an approach to life she has translated into her music. She brings retro jazz-blues into the 21st century by blending arrangement with sampling, scratching and pop to create her signature sound. Caro believes 'you should be able to listen to a song and hear something different every time.'

Ze Records boasted an early-'80s roster that included the varied likes of Alan Vega, Kid Creole & the Coconuts (who was also the imprint's house producer), Was (Not Was), John Cale, the Waitresses, and Christina. The label's musical focus was often on the poppy and eclectic offshoots of New York punk, with more raw acts like Lydia Lunch, James Chance & the Contortions, and Suicide balancing things out with some typically askew contributions. Even though this second label roundup does not feature those fine proponents of Gotham's underground ethos, it still provides a fairly thorough overview of Ze's best acts.

Swingrowers are from Palermo in Sicily and aim to take vintage swing, and with respect and nurture, breathe new life into an old tradition. It’s with their Fresh and yet somehow innately Italian musicianship, combined with the sharp, progressive, but completely sympathetic production style of Roberto that creates the unique sound of the Swingrowers. Vocalist Loredana Grimaldi and DJ / Producer Roberto Costa (AKA ‘Pisk’ - A local drum and bass hero on the Sicilian free-party scene) are joined in their live incarnation by a 'Manouche' guitar player from the local old-boy jazz big band with which Loredana sings in their home town. With the help of manager Giulio Castronovo, within a few short months of their inception the duo began touring Europe to play famous clubs like London’s Hootananny and Paris’s La Javà - Performing on the same stage as Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt. And now their hard work has culminated in this exceptional album.

Enjoy an evening of swing music and dancing at the Black Cotton Club, London’s original speakeasy night. Hosted by legendary DJ duo Lady Kamikaze and El Nino, expect plenty of rare records and gangster sounds from the Twenties to the Forties, sets by guest DJs and live acts – there will be plenty of rare sounds and vintage mischief to celebrate. Don’t forget to don your best vintage from the Twenties to the late Fifties. 2009 two CD collection that brings together remastered and rediscovered gems from rare and original 78's with the best contemporary music influenced by 30's Jazz age sounds. Capturing a new zeitgeist, Disc One (White Mink) brings together the best of today's artists like France's platinum-selling Caravan Palace the Nu-Jazz star Parov Stelar, the UK's Jesse Rose and Austria's Waldeck with influential but hard-to-find early classics of the genre like "Princess Crocodile" by F.M. Einheit and Gry. Disc Two (Black Cotton) is the fruit of many years crate-digging for rare 78's that have then been tried and tested on the Club's dance floor.

Created in their Parisian studios, where the electro-pioneers fuse hedonistic house and old school jazz to glorious effect, evokes the spirit of a modernistic Quintette du Hot Club de France. The musical sound bed for the vocally explosive, burlesque blazoning Zoe Colotis is created by the band’s three founder members Hughes Paven (violin), Charles Delaporte (upright bass) and Arnaud Vial (guitar), plus Camille Chapelière (clarinet) & Antoine Toustou (trombone and electronics) over the beats provided by Paul-Marie Barbier (vibraphone, washboard, piano). The result is a decadent, potent cocktail of jazz manouche, hip-hop, jive, house and beats that defies simple categorisation.

Pianist Denny Zeitlin has the distinction—among many others—of having written one of the loveliest of loves songs: "Love Theme From Invasion of the Bodysnatchers." The tune can be heard in its unadorned beauty on Zeitlin's Precipice (Sunnyside Records, 2010), the recording of an extraordinarily beautiful and adventurous solo concert. The original version of the tune, from the soundtrack of the 1978 movie, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978)—a masterful remake of the classic 1954 science fiction film—was Zeitlin's lone effort at writing for film. Hired originally to do a "jazz" score, Zeitlin found it necessary—when plans changed—to convince the powers-that-be that he was indeed capable of writing music for symphony orchestra and electronics—the then-new-on-the scene synthesizers.

An album that shows the inventiveness of an "essential" recording of Fine Electro-Jazz for all Café Del Mar' collectors. It compiles the efforts of several top European producers, the sounds and styles on display here have strong links to London's electronic scene, the Parisian/American jazz-house community, and Germany's earthy breakbeat maestros. Toni Simonen has succeeded in creating a tight compilation which will excite aficionados of electro beats while even jazz fans will not have any trouble keeping up their interest. Highlights are numerous, from Jakatta' "The other world," Tom Middleton and The Karminski Experience "The Sea". Employing deep house, tittering breaks, and down-tempo attitudes that virtually re-invented the entire electro jazz movement, taking cues from ambient and its chin-stroking underground, songs like "Timeless" or "Zeus" seem to highly respond to the jazz excursions while carrying all the emotional weight of an inspiring collection Sometimes spiced with vocals, and always supported with backings that are sensitive and spare enough to let the work of the main soloist take center stage!

Natural Fake is the sixth album by German project De-Phazz. De-Phazz is a downtempo jazz ensemble integrating modern turntablism and elements of soul, Latin, trip hop and drum and bass into a lounge music sound. De-Phazz is led by Pit Baumgartner, a German producer who has varied the lineup of artists for every new album. Some regular members are Barbara Lahr, Karl Frierson and Pat Appleton. The band has released records on Mole Listening Pearls and Universal Jazz Germany along with single releases on Edel Records and United Recordings, and also remixes existing material.

Straight Round is the ninth studio album by electro-jazz group Four80East. With an eclectic mix of neo-jazz, STRAIGHT ROUND serves up a infectious mix of soul, funk and jazz groovers to follow-up their 2019 Billboard #1 single, Cinco Cinco Seis , from their Ep release, Four On The Floor. Four80East is a Toronto-based electro-jazz duo that’s all about the groove. Drawing from their diverse musical influences, Rob DeBoer and Tony Grace have created a signature sound that combines electronic production with live instrumentation.

Scotty Hard initially made his reputation in the rap world, but since 2000 or so he's been doing at least as many jazz gigs (if not more), contributing heavily to albums by Sex Mob and Medeski, Martin & Wood. Scotty Hard's Radical Reconstructive Surgery is Hard's first jazz release, put out as part of Thirsty Ear's illustrious Blue Series Continuum. The album is constructed from performances of an amazing all-star group: Matthew Shipp and John Medeski on keyboards, free jazz giant William Parker on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums, with additional contributions from DJ Olive and percussionist Mauricio Takara.

A cerebral soul-jazz trio gives up some art and some funk with guest horn players and guitarist Marc Ribot. They call it "Shuck It Up," and rightly so, since they're neither as dissonant nor as ironic as many of their peers playing around downtown New York City. But that doesn't explain why these three don't swing as hard playing Monk, Coltrane, and King Sunny Ade as they do laying down their own earnest grooves and dismantling Bob Marley for mixing up with the Monk. Whether it's insecurity, indifference, or the physical chops they haven't developed to match their minds is for demanding listeners to decide. Or else it's all the same dilemma and will go away with time, just like the band's slow tunes.

Swing Republic are a Danish Electro swing duo, specialising in Electro-Blues and Vintage Remix fronted by producer Per Ebdrup and vocalist Karina Kappel. Formed in 2005, the duo have released a number of Albums and Singles on the record label Freshly Squeezed music, going onto appear at club night 'White Mink'. Prior to forming Per Ebdrup produced a number of tracks with artists such as: Ida Corr, Aura Dione & Gauzz. Electro swing project that blends vintage jazz with a positive contemporary vibe. Members: Producer Per Ebdrup and singer Karina Kappel. The debut album “Electro Swing Republic” was released 7th February 2011 on Freshly Squeezed…