Brownswood UK At Juno Download

Review: "Here On The Line" was one of the standout tracks from the Owiny Sigoma Band's eponymous debut album released this summer, and here it receives a welcome single release alongside a remix from the band's drummer Tom Skinner in his Stalker guise. The original is a bronze toned, summery cut, filled with hypnotic nyatiti melodies, and brushed acoustic guitar giving the track a folky quality. The contrast offered in Stalker's dub version couldn't be more pronounced; stripping the original right back to a single guitar line, clattering rhythm and restless bassline, its cavernous production style takes heavy influence from dub, but with the light melodicism of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack.

Review: First introduced to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label by Ghostpoet, Southampton's Gang Colours makes a confident and impressive debut with this effervescent EP. Weird and woozy textures and soundscapes are the order of the day here, backed with minimal tech-step beats that shiver and crackle in the style of Burial and Mount Kimbie. The incredibly vivid "Village & City" rides a slow, snapping garage beat amongst a wave of chorus-effected notes, while "Fireworks In Pockets" brilliantly uses a cappella cuts over the rising/descending note patterns. Best of the bunch though is "Dance Around The Subject" which builds from a stuttering start into a triplets-accented, multi-octave beauty that's wonderfully hazy and delirious. A debut to definitely get involved with.

Review: Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label drops a very special release for Record Store Day - an incredible mix of OSB's "Wires" from Detroit's favourite son, Theo Parrish. Done quickly and on the fly at Floating Points' Eglo studio, TP's mix of this London/Nairobi project is simply astonishing - keeping the Afrobeat textures but stripping the tune down to bass, urgent hats, some rogue toms, cooing vocals and a lot of compression. Parrish adds some subs to the incredible b-line, but otherwise it's pure, spooky-funk genius.

Review: A fortnight ahead of the release of Ghostpoet's much anticipated album for Brownswood Recordings, Gilles Peterson's label treats us to this teaser featuring album track "Cash And Carry Me Home" with remixes from Alex Patchwork and Gang Colours. The quality of the tune easily matches the cleverness of its title, with the distinctive, oddly distant vocals of the London based vocalist (real name Obaro Ejimiwe) bubbling on top of ghostly atmospherics and a gently shuffling drum pattern. The Gang Colours remix swaps the original's understated percussion for futuristic bleeps and squeaks, while Alex Patchwork's dubby effort chops up the vocals expertly. One for the rainy days, this. Bring on the album.

Review: Professional quiet talker Gilles Peterson unveils the first in hopefully a long line of new Worldwide compilations, entrusting the tracklisting duties to two members of the WW extended family in the shape of ace London dwelling French producer and DJ Simbad and Belgian jock Lefto. Armed with the license to gather up an army of international prospects, the duo has excelled, delivering 27 stellar jams. There are names you'll recognise such as Cooly G, Seiji and Zed Bias but these are sandwiched between a host of lesser known but equally talented producers and bands. It's this melange of the known and unknown that sets the standard for future editions of Worldwide Family. Echoing his show on Studio Brussels, Lefto's selection leans heavily on the beat heavy head nodders from the US and mainland Europe until the delightful cover of Inner City's "Good Life" from UK act Brass Roots, whilst Onra's heavy disco vibes on "The Perfect Match" and Tokimonsta's exercise in bottom heavy vocal click-clackers end the set on a high note. At 15 tracks, Simbad's selection provides more musical scope, kicking off with manipulated ethereal sampledelica of Airhead and including Illum Sphere's amazing ode to Dimlite before slipping in some shimmering beatdown from Swedish talent Andreas Saag. Next level afro jazz leanings from the Bay Area duo Afrikan Sciences & Kebbi leads into deep future house bizniz from Ave Blaste & Cosmo Rodriguez, a Franco Paraguayan duo based in London, whilst contributions from the aforementioned Cooly G, Zed Bias and Seiji adds some real contemporary heat to selection.

Review: Brooklynites Half Seas Over really impress with this self-titled debut on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood imprint. Comprised of singer Adam McBride-Smith and pianist Elen Mehler, this release follows on from Mehler's The After Suite album from last year, which saw the pair join forces on a couple of tracks.

While The After Suite was rooted in jazz, this new fully-fledged collaboration has liberated the pair to create something that will appeal to a great swathe of music fans. Unashamedly mellow and melancholy, the instrumentation is sparse but played to a truly captivating standard. Mehler's piano must take the lion's share of credit ? check out his staccato, nerve-jangling playing on ?Rake? for one example. But there are also drums and the occasional accordion (which nicely evokes the genesis of their name ? a slang term for drunken sailors). The virtuoso double-bass on opener "Get Me To The Station" especially will have your jaw slowly dropping in admiration of the dexterous playing.

While most of the songs are slow and sentimental, a couple of jolly and upbeat songs make the cut. "Sunday's Empire" has a rollicking bar-room vibe, while "Sad Mona" has a pleasing bossa nova lilt to it. They give the album a wider range as McBride-Smith's smooth, Chet Baker-style voice cooing and emoting nicely throughout the album. Combining jazz, folk and blues so effortlessly, this album manages to touch on a lot that has come before - Tom Waits, Talk Talk and Jamie Cullum to name but a few ? but manages to set itself apart nicely from the rest.

Review: A honey-dipped vocalist with an excellent album out at the moment, the sublime Blackmagic, here are three mixes of single "Warrior" to further your enjoyment of Jose James. Sbtrkt turns in the most hectic of the three, keeping the beats buzzing and off-kilter, while Rockwell takes the mono-sylablic vocals and puts a dark tech-step beat underneath it. Jus Wan however keeps things warm and jazzy, keeping the original's piano styles and chopping them up with great effect. Three top mixes that each give off their own unique moods and interpretation, these are certainly worthy of a spin.

Review: Gilles Peterson has always remained committed to innovation, experimentation and new talent. His own Brownswood Recordings imprint has been the perfect platform for him to help who he terms as "unsung heroes and emerging talent" to get released and reach more people. The fifth instalment of the series, this mix compilation does exactly that whilst shifting across genres and styles seemingly with each track on a CD that highlights Peterson's eclectic tastes further.

Although these are artists and tracks that Peterson has been using regularly in his live sets and radio shows, they will largely remain unknown to many. As such it is a great delight that on this offering, we get to hear the fragile and emotive soul-kissed electronic a of Ragen Fykes' "Love Life", the slow and hazy jazz-house of Ron Basejam's "Into My Life" and Michael Olatuja's "Hold On" before moving on to the shy, fractured pop of Samuel & The Dragon's "Rising Up" and the hip hop infused breaks of "Happy" by Daru.

Some were released some time ago now and appear here as an attempt to reach more through this release's attachment to the bigger name of Gilles Peterson. However, some are seeing the light of day for the very first time as exclusive tracks to this compilation. Artists include Ron Baejam, Daru & Rena and Electric Wire Hussle as Peterson explores music that harbours more interest than most other club music. Ranging from Soultronica to Hip Hop and from Jazz to Nu-Soul, there's enough there to keep even the most eclectic music fan engaged from start to finish.