Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Stretching across four sides of vinyl, this double LP from Worcestershire-born producer, bandleader and serial collaborator Will Holland traces his journey through transcontinental rhythms and dusty dancefloors. The carefully spaced tracklist opens with JJ Whitefield's deep-thinking 'The Mind Is A Palace', before the record quickly dips into London fusion with The Heliocentrics and Alfa Mist's 'In My Defence'. Dialect's fragmented ambient textures play the foil to Holland's own 'Twang', while JKriv's 'Pifeiro Malandro' evokes smoky Rio funk as filtered through downtown New York. Later on, Frente Cumbiero and a rework of 'Theme From Selva' provide a humid middle section before things sharpen up. Club-leaning selections like 'Eko Eko', 'Scintille' and Anna Morgan's 'Throw Dat Azz' burst across the later sides, pushed by bass pressure and broken-beat finesse. Meridian Brothers' 'Un Grande Nubarron Se Alza En El Cielo' and Sobredosis's 'No Llores Por Mi' bring an eerie sweetness to the close i a reminder that for Holland, emotion and groove are always entwined.

Review: First released in 1971, Garra captures Brazillian legend Marcos Valle at his most playful and politically subversive i a sun-soaked record full of breezy melodics, cerebral arrangements and beneath-the-surface protest. Reissued by Spanish imprint Vampi Soul, it sounds as compellingly bittersweet as ever. Valle blends samba, soul and psychedelia into something smooth but quietly radical, with lyrics (penned by his brother Paulo Sergio) touching on everything from consumerism to cultural identity, often disguised as love songs. Tracks like 'Jesus Meu Rei' and 'Com Mais de 30' retain all their sonic charm and tropical levity, while 'Black Is Beautiful' stands out for its politicism as much as its poignancy. The arrangements are rich but never overly busy, balancing Rhodes keys, strings and rhythm with ample airiness. Garra is a magnificent reminder of how music, when done right, has the power to elevate discourse, challenge the establishment, and joyfully celebrate unity.

Review: The Iron Curtain, a politically charged term of the 20th century, symbolised the divide between East and West. Winston Churchill famously referenced this metaphor, describing how an "Iron Curtain" descended upon Europe, obscuring the actions behind it. This two-parter record from Jazzman does the impossible, lifting the curtain through sound alone, representing jazz's ablation of political and cultural barriers, as it flourished in Soviet states and exposed the contradictory histories of Soviet jazz, from the 1960s to the 80s. Despite Cold War tensions and MADs, the Soviets didn't hold their breath for a second, embracing the jazz modernisms of hard bop, modal, Latin jazz and Eastern folk-jazz. The resilience of jazz artists during an era of geopolitical conflict thus offers a sprightly affirmation of spirituality and formal reinvention, in the face of adversity.

Review: A new compilation from Spiritual Jazz shows the genre's predisposition to thrive despite heavy political oppression, with underworld eminents euphonating their radical music despite a hard immuring behind the Iron Curtain, which represented the gash between East and West during the Cold War. Contemporary jazz and European folk collide on the first of a two-parter record here, reflecting muted but reassuring sonic utterances sounding against oppression, a somewhat unspeakable sentiment whipping across the Eastern Bloc of the 50s and 60s. Vagif Mustafa Zade, an Azerbaijani pianist, and the Manfred Ludwig Sextett, from the same era, are only two such featured artists; they helped push the embrace hard bop and modal, and the boundaries of what was permissible under the regime.