- Germany's nu-jazz supergroup, Jazzanova have built up a following in the 9 years they've been together, starting off as a DJ team then moving onto producing their own tunes in 1996. Their latest DJ-mixed compilation, ...Mixing sees the group return to their former roots as DJ's to mix up a tasty collection of nu-jazz, electro beats and of course a few unreleased artist tracks thrown into the mix.
R&B sensation Jill Scott starts off the mix with A Long Walk featured here as a remix done by Jazzy Jeff's A Touch Of Jazz crew. Cool urban jazz influenced R&B vocals backed by jazzy rhythms to get things underway. For those who get into the sound of the Jazzyfatnastees should easily get down to this. Jazzanova mash it up with their L.O.V.E. Beats towards the middle giving it a chopped up abstract electronica feel in the vein of Hexstatic meets Coldcut.
Rainbow by Phoojun brings in an uptempo jazz flavoured stomper to the mix featuring plentiful use of percussive elements, keyboard arrangements and a flute solo thrown in for good measure. Sirius Mo's U-Again brings in disco elements into the mix and is a concoction of electro keyboard melodies, disco guitar riffs and filtered vocals setting a nice precursor to Carol Williams' Can't Get Away From Your Love - diva-led disco house featuring a heavy use of synth melodies and disco elements.
Jazzanova provide three of their own tunes for this release, the first being Let Your Heat Be Free featuring the vocals of Nicola Kramer, Clara Hill and Georg Levin. A deep percussive groove with ample use of dirty bass lines, percussive drum fills and warm, fuzzy synths. Glow And Glare is exclusive to the mix and featured here with a remix by Ame who gives it a deep electro-house flavour while Jazzanova lay down an acapella of Oba Funke's Uzoamaka. Atjazz provide another exclusive remix to the CD, adding their own flavour to Jazzanova's Dance The Dance. An abstract intro sees keyboards and bass plaing in unison before the beats and funky bass licks kick in for the pan pipes and flutes give up a couple of solos.
NYC hip hop MC Bahamadia brings in hip hop on a jazzy, Digable Planets style tip on Uknowhoewedo with Ski providing a remix. Hip Hop heads will easily associate themselves with Bahamadia's deep and robust vocal delivery.
Sonar Kollektiv's other artists are featured towards the end with Slope's Mousse lending in some phat dirty bass and electro stylings to the mix, Extended Spirit brings out a dirtier and dubbier electro flavour to the mix on Siding with hip hop samples cut throughout and the mix closes off with Georg Levin's Let There Be Love after a 30 pause as the crowd shout for an encore after Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft's Try.
Overall, it's a tidy mix of nu-jazz, electro disco and downtempo urban/R&B tunes, with Jazzanova throwing a couple of exclusive tracks remixed by some of their favourite remixers. For those who love their nu-jazz and especially can't get enough Jazzanova will certainly like this one.