First Word レコード& CD

Review: Wonky meets jazz in this impressive new jazz mini-LP from Japan. Takuya Kuroda is a highly respected trumpeter and arranger born in Kobe, Japan and based in New York City. 'Midnight Crisp' is Takuya's seventh studio album, entirely self-produced and following 2020's highly acclaimed 'Fly Moon Die Soon'. Learning jazz in a higher education environment, he's reapplied his skills to a new solo outing here, blending with his one true loves, afrobeat and hip-hop. The ensuing album is one of myriad midnight moods, tempered by many a virtuosic and mournful piano, digitally-edited drum brush, and trilling trumpet from the mouth of Kuroda himself.

Review: Takuya Kuroda is a highly respected trumpeter and arranger from Kobe, Japan but now based in New York City. Midnight Crisp was his seventh studio album and now First World has had a selection of cuts from it remixed. 'Choy Soda' gets superb treatment in the form of Waajeed's Hi-Tech Jazz remix which jumbles the trumpet motifs with shuffling drums and future soul. On the flip, 'Dead End Dance' gets a signature Kaidi Tatham remix that brings the broken beats and sunny sounds to the fore with more languid jazz notes adding sultriness.

Review: After her magnetic debut EP for Running Circle in 2017, Nottingham's Yazmin Lacey lands on our charts with her follow-up 12", a piece of work that sounds deeply accomplished and expansive for being her second EP to date. Largely roaming within the jazzo-sphere, When The Sun Dips 90 Degress is a beautifully seductive five-tracker, with the artist's voice reigning supreme over the cascading showers of piano keys and subtle electronics, somehow tapping into the Alice Coltrane sort of vibe. There's no harp here, but plenty of soulful charisma. Fear not thy devout jazz fanatic - this can get real deep and real smooth. It's a broken beat fan's dream some true. More from Lacey is, indeed, expected in the remainder of the year. Marvellous stuff.

Review: For those with intimate knowledge of the original West London broken beat scene of the late '90s and early 2000s, the return of IG Culture's New Sector Movements project is big news. Remarkably, 'These Times' contains the first new 'NSM' material in 15 years and sees IG Culture joined by a swathe of guest vocalists and musicians including Allysha Joy, Mike City, Natalie May, Wonky Logic and Alex Phountzi. Musically, it's as on-point as you'd expect, with IG Culture and his merry band confidently striding between rolling, horn-sporting future R&B ('These Times'), jazz-funk-flavoured breakbeat soul (the incredible 'Stand'), head-nodding, Latin-tinged 21st century street soul ('Hope'), Kaidi and Dego style business ('H.E.A.T') and hard-wired, sub-heavy, peak-time ready broken beat (the infectious 'Bless').

Review: Victoria Port, one half of the acclaimed electronic soul duo Anushka, steps into the spotlight with her debut solo EP, an accomplished exploration of soulful melodies and heartfelt lyricism delivered via powerful vocals and introspective songwriting. The EP features a diverse range of sounds, from the soulful grooves of 'Cigarette' and 'Haunting' to the more intimate balladry of 'Keep Love For Me' and the title track, 'Did It Again'. Port's lyrics delve into themes of vulnerability, resilience and the transformative power of motherhood, drawing inspiration from the legacy of her Dominican grandmother and the powerful women in her life. A very promising debut.

Review: After offering up EPs titled "Hard Times" and "Changing Times" in 2017, Kaidi Tatham returns to First Word to complete the trilogy with "Serious Times". Of course, the music contained within the EP's tightly packed grooves is as joyous, rich as intricate as ever. Check, for example, "Don't Cry Now", a samba-soaked, sun-kissed affair that wraps harmonic freestyle vocals, twinkling electric piano lines and darting jazz-funk bass around a seriously shuffling groove. Tatham's much-discussed jazz-funk influences are once again given an airing on "Sugar", while his fine piano work takes pride of place on instrumental hip-hop head-nodder "Zallom". Best of all, though, is opener "Cost of Living", which emphatically weaves together all of these strands and more besides.