Playlist

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Jazzanova are both talented purveyors of "nu jazz" (in its earlier days known as "acid jazz") and the heads of their own label. In the past few years, they have been selecting and releasing one after the other brilliant tune, some on limited-edition vinyl only. Now, the braintrust has decided it's time for a compilaton and a full seven vinyl originals or remixes are now finally available to a wider audience.

And in such fine company! 'Playlist' could well be the finest nu jazz sampler the present reviewer has ever heard. The agenda is firmly in place: An obsessive exploration of the cool jazz aesthetic of the 1960s, here reiterated with liberal doses of latin rhythms and electronic swathes. And high-quality musicianship - give ear to the echoing Rhodes piano and guitar stylings of Classen Collective's "Close to Greatness (Deep Joy Mix)". Not "close" - spot on! Not mere bedroom auteurs, the talent on display here.

And while the label have an artist stable easily capable of filling one or two or three CDs with similarly top-notch grooves - including Koop, Victor Davies, Nu Spirit Helsinki, Classen Collective, and the gorgeous male-female duet "Birdsong" by The Underwolves - Jazzanova display an extra gift for compilation work by interleaving five tracks by East German and Polish jazz outfits from the 60s and 70s, previously released on the compilations 'Formation 60' and 'Go Right'. Aside from seamlessly fitting into the mix (you really can't tell the players without a programme), it is remarkable how the young jazz hipsters of Communist Warsaw and Berlin were possessed of the same bopping, bossa-nova addled mindset as these 21st-century electronically-bred boys and girls.

Aside from the obvious advancements in technology, only rarely do samples, broken beats or laptop glitch manipulations betray the recent vintage of the current-day material. Otherwise the dedication to the swinging, easy-listening groove is observed with great piety and with great inventiveness. Perhaps the most definitive examples include the horns, brushed skins and cymbals, vibraphone solo and swooning vocals of Koop's "Summer Sun" or the dreamy Bacharachian "Darkest Day" by Nemo, which closes off 'Playlist' with just the right touch of melancholy optimism.

Bound to be a perennial favourite. This is the kind of compilation you build a nightclub around.