Half moody jazzy tunes, half mid-tempo mellow house beats, nice and relaxing. The title track and Moral Dilemmas are the peak points, the previous reminding me of Miles Davis’ electronic explorations.
Jupiter Jax – No Such Thing
Skalpel – Highlight
Easy listening nu jazz. I rarely listen to this genre nowadays but it’s nice to come back to something that brings back memories of the Couch Records of dZihan & Kamien, the !K7 of Tosca, the Sonar Kollektiv of Jazzanova. Smells like sitting on a terrace on a summer night with warm breeze moving around the little paper umbrella pinned to a slice of lemon sitting on the top of a gin tonic and having no problems at all in the world.
I remember travelling to Vienna, Austria with a group of music journalist to report from a concert and during the night ride home talking about what’s hot in music, and there was this guy saying that nu jazz is the best music genre in the world and will stay forever. It was 2006. I wonder if he was right: looking at Skalpel underlines that it’s indeed here even if not topping the charts although it never have done so. Being the cornerstone music of the ruin pub revolution in Budapest was never a Billboard chart defining attribute for a genre I guess.
I remember a guy from Byron Bay, Australia who I quite randomly met at a coffee place in a small town in Hungary and who told me he had a vinyl and surf shop by the oceanside. His main reason to travel to Central Europe every year was to seek out new nu jazz records. That and pretty Hungarian girls. Anyhow, his favorite label was Couch Records, we got along quickly. He ended up leeching most of my music collection and went on to Vienna with a long list of new record ideas to collect for his shop.
Many people were crazy about nu jazz 15-20 years ago, it was an underground music movement that I never understood why stayed underground. Probably the easy listening tunes are too perfectly fit for mindless chilling on a beach and in popular use it just stuck to that lounge setting and noone really paid attention.
Various Artists – 25 Compost Records
As much as I like Compost there’s nothing groundbreaking on this compilation. It’s nothing like the Ninja Tune XX collection. Still, it’s a 5 hours long great selection of stuff for the background that doesn’t need one skip button.
Ultramarine – Signals Into Space
Something like an ageless bridge across nu jazz, ambient electronica, soft grooves and laidback head music. Soothing, relaxed, nice feelings, a light and gentle touch on the soul.
iZem – Hafa
It’s exactly like nu jazz today. Laid-back lounge music with some african elements mixed in.
Professor Kliq – The Scientific Method, Vol. III
Electronic music but sounds much live, although the Bandcamp page clearly says what tools were used. Hiphop tempo mostly, soft edges, cool atmosphere, some lounge, some dancefloor, definitely music for the summer.
I have developed some hook on this album, been listening to it for the past few days and it is really pleasant for work, home entertainment and chilling out, too. Don’t get me wrong this is not just background music, there’s a lot detail if you pay attention. Great compositions all over, good choice of instruments, pleasant on the level of !K7 quality, resembles some Kruder & Dorfmeister, Tosca stuff et al.
I just noticed one thing, worth noting: “All original works have been released under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.” Wow.
Crazy P – Walk Dance Talk Sing
A totally usual and casual nu-jazz album, like it’s 2004, the high times of Dzihan & Kamien, Jazzanova, Herbert et al. And !K7 still lives this era by releasing such a record in 2015.