Norman Jay At Juno Download

Review: We've lost count of the number of volumes in the Good Times series, but it must have easily reached double figures. This instalment, previously unreleased digitally, first appeared on long-departed rave imprint React back in 2003. If you missed out first time around, it's well worth checking. Unlike later volumes, which seemed to try and tick far too many boxes musically, Good Times 3 pretty much sticks to gorgeously sunny, soulful flavours. That means a delightful, party-friendly selection that touches on vintage funk, soul, disco, boogie, US garage (remember that?), ska, reggae, classic hip-hop (the boom-bap brilliance of Main Source) and, erm, Jamiroquai. Delightfully, there are plenty of classics to plug the gaps in your collection, but also a wealth of lesser-known nuggets.

Review: The Good Times reissue series continues with a fourth selection of joyous gems and Carnival-friendly jams compiled by Norman and Joey Jay. As usual, there's a good mix of the familiar (Aswad's "Warrior Charge", Estelle's anthemic "1980", Bomb The Bass's "Bug Powder Dust" as remixed by long-forgotten French touchers La Funk Mob) and the lesser known (Brenda Russell, the brilliant but often overlooked Ten City cut "Superficial People"), across a dizzying array of styles. From Latin-tinged soulful house, R&B, hip-hop and funk to classic reggae, disco and soul, Good Times 4 barely misses a beat in its pursuit of classy, goodtime pleasures.

Review: Surely the funkiest man to sport an MBE proudly at the end of his name, Norman Jay's latest collection of Notting Hill carnival party sounds is both big on the classics and obscurities too. While Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Get Ready", SL2's "On A Ragga Tip", and Origin Unknown's D&B anthem "Valley of The Shadows" are tried and tested DJ favourites, others like Dennis Brown's "Some Like It Hot" or the Ashford and Simpson-produced silky disco beauty "Bad Company" by Ullanda McCullough or Eamon's The Flamingoes-sampling "I Love Them O's" make this a truly illuminating collection and an essential purchase.

Review: For many Londoners, it wouldn't be summer without the Notting Hill Carnival and Norman Jay's long-running Good Times Soundsystem. The hat-wearing MBE owner is celebrating 30 years of carnival parties this summer. What better excuse, then, for another breezy, party-centric trawl through the veteran DJ's epic record collection. As usual, the unmixed Good Times 30th Anniversary Edition features a selection of festival-friendly grooves, from dusty old disco, flute-sporting funk and classic soul to bouncy disco-house, head-nodding hip-hop and Red Stripe-swigging reggae riddims. By now, we all know what we're getting, but it's still great fun.