Stones Throw US レコード& CD

Review: Having recently unfurled one synth-laden future jazz-funk classic (John Carroll Kirby's superb Blowout), Stones Throw delivers another fabulous album informed by the intersection between jazz, funk and synth sounds. Of course, Kiefer Shackleford's work has always been far more informed by hip-hop than Kirby's, and that remains a key point of difference on It's OK B U. While Shackleford loves showcasing his own piano and synth work (and it's those elements that frequently catch the ear), the accompanying beats - a mixture of head-nodding, Guru and Dilla style grooves, Flying Lotus style experiments, chopped-up breaks, wayward Dam Funk style affairs and slipped jazz rhythms - are equally as potent.

Review: There's a definite sense of "time and place" throughout John Carrol Kirby's latest album, Blowout. He recorded it all during a recent trip to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, "between 5am wake-up calls from orpopendola birds and psychedelic sunsets", drawing inspiration from the people, music and nature that surrounded him. It's certainly a joyful and colourful affair - despite his insistence that it's about "enjoying yourself even though life is tough, before the candle blows out" - with Kirby mixing sparkling, often kaleidoscopic 1980s electrofunk synth sounds with warming grooves, pastoral woodwind instrumentation, and musical motifs that draw on his love of jazz-funk and fusion. It's basically a sensationally summery affair whose mostly subtly nods to Costa Rican musical culture only enhance the album.

Review: It's taken a while, but finally Knxwledge has delivered the follow-up to his "official" debut album, 2015's "Hud Dreems". A concept album of sorts - the tall tale behind it being that the beats were created in 1988 by an infant version of our musical hero after he climbed inside an SP-12 sampler and mastered the machine - the set sees Knxwledge sprint through a beat-tape style assortment of short, sweet and often sublime instrumentals that make use of a variety of period samples. Given his track record, it's an impressive album, regardless whether the beats were genuinely made when he was in "Nike diapers" (as the press release amusingly claims) or not.