Heavenly Sweetness France レコード& CD

Review: Piloted by Ibiza-based producer Guts and Los Angeles' crate-digger Mambo, the Beach Diggin' series gleefully gathers together sun lounger-friendly cuts from around the World. While there's always a lazy, sun-ready feel to their selections, they stick closer to soul, funk, disco and boogie than many other like-minded collections. This fourth volume in the series is packed with more obscure, horizontally inclined material from the likes of Sue Barker (not the former tennis player, obviously), Alex Khaoli (the talk box-sporting, electrofunk-era jazz-funk beauty of "Cross Lines"), Brooski (the close-dance sweetness of "This Love"), and Jemaa (the reggae-soul shuffle of "Bob Marley").

Review: Anthony Joseph's roots run deep in the Caribbean, and the Trinidad native's singular spoken word style is full of colour and energy, just like the islands he hails from. All the music on Caribbean Roots is essentially a form of funked-out free jazz, but the vocals on the likes of "The Kora" are as powerful and evocative as the music itself. But the madness doesn't end there by any stretch of the imagination - the Miles Davis like speed of "Drum Song" is like a call to the Gods, "Slinger" is a fast-paced afrofunk shuffle, and others like "Our History" offer a more soulful edge to this wonderfully contained pandemonium. Fantastic music.