First Word 黑胶唱片和CD

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').