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.

John Medeski, Matthew Shipp - Scotty Hard's Radical Reconstructive Surgery (2006) {Thirsty Ear Recordings}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 280 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 105 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 18 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 Thirsty Ear Recordings | THI 57172.2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Jazz Funk / Future Jazz / Organ

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.

Medeski Martin & Wood - It's A Jungle In Here (1993) {Gramavision GCD 79495}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 338 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 131 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993 Gramavision / Rykodisc | GCD 79495
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Electric Jazz / Soul Jazz

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…

Cut Capers are a 9-piece Bristol band whose energetic live performance and infectious sound have won them a cult following on the British festival scene. Mixing a swinging vintage-style brass section (think Caro Emerald) with funk, soul and hip-hop. Like all the best bands, (and many of those on Freshly Squeezed Music) their sound is hard to pin down but comparisons have been made to “Madness, The Streets and Lily Allen” among many others (The Bristol Magazine). Cut Capers have established themselves as go-to festival favourites, playing headline shows and main stage performances at some of the UK’s biggest festivals including Glastonbury Festival (official) and Boomtown Fair.

Melvin Gibbs - Ancients Speak (2009) {LiveWired Music LWM1001}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 314 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 114 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 LiveWired Music | LWM1001
Jazz / Jazz Fusion / Jazz Funk / Electric Jazz

Melvin Gibbs has not been an easy artist to pigeonhole. The New York City bassist has had plenty of rock credentials (including Harriet Tubman, Eye & I, and the Rollins Band), but he has had his share of impressive jazz associations as well (for example, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Frisell, and Ronald Shannon Jackson). And Gibbs doesn't become any easier to pigeonhole on Ancients Speak, which finds him leading a group that is billed as Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity. This 2009 release draws on a long list of influences, ranging from African pop to funk, hip-hop, jazz, and rock.

The Spirit of the Golden Twenties is with us even a hundred years later and is still captivating people with flair and esprit from New York to Shanghai. But with prohibition, the stock market crash, flapper-girls and boisterous charleston dancing - the 2020s were a time of radical changes, too. Tape Five was already looking forward to chilled sounds in a sunny future, but with the sign of our times pointing to either "dancing on the volcano" or the swansong of civilization as we know it - we decided it was better to deliver a rousing party album! Tape Five, founded in 2003 by master-mind Martin Strathausen (favorite quote:"I did it my way"), have already navigated their way through many facettes of vintage/retro music, and since 2010 have been making a name for themselves as "pioneers of electroswing". Since then they have thrived on a mixture of beats using the means of modern times, but with song structures, stories, atmospheres, arrangements and live musicians inspired by days gone by, when enthusiasm for music boomed and musical individualism was paramount. "The Roaring 2020s" is Tape Five's seventh album.

Multi-instrumentalist L. Shankar’s fascinating evolution as a musician and composer took yet another intimate turn with M.R.C.S. Dedicated to Shankar’s father, V. Lakshminarayana, it also boasts master percussionists Zakir Hussain (tabla), Vikku Vinayakram (ghatam), and drummer Jon Christensen. The depths of the album’s experiences are forever aquatic, as in the opening “Adagio,” which floats Shankar’s double violin insights on a dark and winding current.

By the time the Brand New Heavies released Shelter in 1997, urban R&B was shifting toward the more organic grooves that they helped pioneer in the early '90s. Although the Heavies were into acid jazz as well, they smoothed over many of the experimental elements of their music in the mid-'90s, leaving behind a seductive, earthy, and jazzy variation of urban soul. That provided the foundation for Shelter, their first album featuring Siedah Garrett as lead singer. Garrett's smooth voice helps push the band toward more conventional territory, yet their songwriting is stronger than most of the contemporaries, and their sound is funkier and more convincing. While there are no standout singles on Shelter, it's a uniformly engaging listen, illustrating that the Brand New Heavies are one of the great underrated urban R&B bands of the '90s.

An adventurous fusion outfit, New York's Tauk emerged in the early 2010s playing a cross-pollinated brand of jazz, funk, prog, and instrumental jam band rock. Although friends since their teens, the bandmembers came to wider attention after Tauk toured with Umphrey's McGee and released their own 2013 album, Homunculus. Favorites on the jam band circuit, Tauk keep an intense live schedule, appearing at festivals around the globe. Hailing from Oyster Bay, New York, Tauk feature guitarist Matt Jalbert, keyboardist Alric Carter, bassist Charlie Dolan, and drummer Isaac Teel. Friends since the seventh grade, Jalbert, Carter, and Dolan played together in various bands growing up before forming Tauk…

Club des Belugas' 11th studio album "Strange Things Beyond The Sunny Side" will be released on September 27th, 2019. Featuring Anna-Luca, Maya Fadeeva, Antoine Villoutreix, Ashley Slater and Iain Mackenzie.

Masabumi Kikuchi - One Way Traveller (1982) {2016 Japan Crossover & Fusion Collection 1000 Series SICJ 170}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 285 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 97 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 259 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1982, 2016 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SICJ 170
Jazz / Fusion / Electric Jazz / Jazz Funk / Keyboards

Reissue with the latest DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. A gem of a record from Japanese keyboardist Masabumi Kikuchi – one of those massive Japanese fusion classics that was partly recorded overseas, partly here in the US – with a sound that brings together all the best soulful aspects of both scenes! Kikuchi can create some really weird, wonderful sounds when he wants – but can also slide into a groove with the best of them – and, given the vintage of the record, may well be more inventive than Herbie Hancock ever was at this point in his career! The lineup's filled with great talents – trumpeter Terumasa Hino, reedman Steve Grossman, and guitarist James Mason – coming together wonderfully on titles that include "Sky Talk", "Madjap Express", "Alacalder", and "Sum Dum Fun".