Super review by Cal Gibson, of The Secret Soul Society.

The vinyl of this excellent E.P. has apparently already sold out so you may have to plump for digital on these three slices of super soulful broken jazz beats and pieces. “Techsouljazz” rules the roost here, with lashings of classic Detroitian flavours stirred into the pot: the music is angular and flowing, jaunty and melancholic, focused and sprawling, minimal and maximal, all at once. Very, very clever production-wise, with tons of musicality thrown in for free.

Bearings kicks off, and the mood is established straight out of the gate: bumpy keys and a rolling bassline anchoring the snares, and the ghost of Chick Corea wandering around asking if anyone’s seen Carl Craig recently. Either that, or Drexciya have been hitting the jazz rooms. Made for a basement and a red light, naturally.

Feeling Good Costs Nothing is a little more sedate while retaining a similar propulsive forward motion. Fragmented keys echo around its main riff, sharpened percussion leading the way, digging ever deeper into just what it is exactly that works on a dancefloor. Wonky but precise, not a whole lot happening, but what is happening is assuredly top-notch. Again, the production hits the sweetest of sweet spots.

The best, though, is saved til last. The eleven minute title track has all the hallmarks of a phuture jazz-dance classic. Holding the same feels as the two opening cuts but expanding out into a cosmically-inclined modal hoedown: electric, eclectic, fathoms deep and beautifully done. The headz will flip for this one.

Arnheim’s From Shapes To Visions is out now on Barbara Recordings.