1. The Menahan St Band – Make The Road By Walking (Daptone/Fuse) Currently setting the world on fire, these laid back instrumental soul grooves from players of The Dap Kings and El Michel’s Affair really do soothe the savage beast. 2. Parov Stelar – Libella Swing (Etage Noir) Incredibly upfront house boogie tunes with the signature Parov Stelar clarinets and dusty horns to make it sound like Benny Goodman remixed by Basement Jaxx. 3. Underworld – Born Slippy (London Elektricity Remix) – Sony Where did this one come from? A cheeky surprise indeed that heads up our soon to be released new music groups which will cover a bit of the ol’ drum n bass as well as a plethora of other cool genres. 4. Foreign Beggars – Hit That (Grindin’) Perhaps not the most PC tune we could have picked (still, there are censored versions) the electro beat and quick rapping in this makes it a certified club banger. 5. Theivery Corporation – Radio Retaliation (ESL/Shock) The whole album is sublime, perhaps not travelling any new ground but still the boy doing what they do best. Sophisticated grooves from reggae and Latin to dub and eastern influenced beats – sublime. 6. Shana – Uyangichomela (Ralf Gum Classic Mix) (GOGO Music) A summery house groove with some gorgeous subtle latin vocals and horns, kinda sounds like mid nineties Dimitri/MAW remixing Jamiroquai. A really feel good song. 7. Q-Tip – The Renaissance (Motown/UMA) The former Tribe Called Quest emcee finally gets his solo album on (after the last two got shelved) and the results are highly enjoyable. Nu Soul and Hip Hop are the order of the day and ‘Move’ gets our pick of the bunch for the rising action and funky backbeat. 8. Jazzanova – Of All The Things – (Verve/UMA) Could be up for album of the year this one. It features a slew of guests like Jose James, Ben Westbeech, Dwele, Leon Ware, Joe Dukie, Phonte and more and is an almost entirely sample-free orchestral affair. Staggeringly good song writing and production. As Gilles Peterson says, ‘for six white guys from Berlin they sure do make one black album.’ 9. All Good Funk Alliance – Avance (Super Hi Fi) Our friends from DC team up with Sydney siders Merenia and Vincent Sebastian for the funky groover with a balls-out remix from Ursula 1000. Look out for AGFA’s new compilation ‘The Raid’ out on Jalapeno Records soon. 10. Exile – Summer Song (Plug Research/Knowfoowl) Incredible bouncey instrumental hip hop with a feel good message that samples from Los Angeles radio waves. Hard to describe but truly blissful listening from a ground breaking album out Jan 09