The original Gabin - a French actor known for his portrayals of jaded, faded anti-heroes in 1930s and '40s-era films - might have chuckled ironically if he had been told that, a half-century after his heyday, two Italian musicians would name a fledgling lounge music project after him. But if he had listened to the music, he would have understood. It's full of languid grace and melancholy and is undeniably stylish - exactly what you'd expect to hear in a Parisian café or supper club. Just to add to the effect, many of the song titles and lyrics are in French.
Gabin (2002). Milky, silken rhythms lace through this collaboration between Roman DJ Filippo Clary and jazz bassist Max Battini. Their perspectives find accord in the realm of what martini-addled old-timers might label "acid jazz"…

Stockholm’s Oscar Simonsson and Magnus Zingmark embarked on their esoteric musical quest in 1997, initially sampling jazz’s rich and diverse catalogue into their own collage-style melting pot, topped with an array of guest singers from home and abroad which became their trademark. Over the three albums they recorded over the following 10 years, the pair refined and broadened their sound, replacing the borrowed music with their developing songwriting skills.
This 11-track set presents highlights from Koop’s three albums.

After India’s heat and its vibrant colors, Buddha-Bar takes us to the wild East to discover Russia. Emblematic and mysterious country, Russia offers a wide array of climates, cultures and arts. That last aspect has seduced DJ Ravin and led him to have Buddha-Bar XV focused on this enchanting atmosphere. Take a journey to these unexplored territories; walk through Russia from east to west and from North to South to the sweet sounds of Russian traditional instruments and vocals. The first CD, acoustic and enchanting, will take you through the steppe, listening Bliss, Yasmine Hamdan, Thor… The second CD, more infused with electronic music, will immerse you in Russia’s warm nights with artists such as Dim Vach or Sean Bay.

Gus Gus create a multi-vibe stir with Polydistortion. At times as cold and icy as their frosty homeland (Iceland), at other times a rumbling volcano of pyrotechnic rhythms, the CD is a study in the dynamics of the electronic. Atmospheric without ever being boring, Gus Gus rely on soul-filled or breathy vocals to turn their compositions into some of the more interesting and accessible aural amalgamations ever committed to disc. "Believe" is a rhythmic juggernaut, while "Gun" is a moody study of beats and texture. "Why" is particularly stunning, a sparse torch song carried along by a Fender Rhodes-style piano line. More eclectic than electronica, Gus Gus make aural sculptures out of rhythm.

The '90s version of prog-rock meets the real thing on 1995's Deseo Remixes. Global Communication, Trans-Global Underground, Future Sound of London, and Deep Forest each contribute remixes of the world music project by Yes' Jon Anderson. The Deep Forest and Global Communication tracks are the highlights.

An underground icon throughout the Arab world, vocalist Yasmine Hamdan presents her mesmerizing debut solo album - an elegant mutant strain of electro folk, inspired by various Middle eastern traditions - written and produced in collaboration with Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague. Yasmine first became known with Soapkills, the duo she founded in Beirut, which was probably the first indie/electronic band to appear in the Middle East. The music of Soapkills quickly became the soundtrack to the vibrant, young arts scene which developed in postwar Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world. On moving to Paris Yasmine worked with CocoRosie and French electronic music producer Mirwais. The inspiration for the melodies and the lyrics of her music comes from the great Arab women singers of the mid-20th century and the mischievous sensuality and the subtle, ironic social criticism which pervades their lyrics. Yasmine's vocals are connected to traditions of Arabic music but the structures and arrangements of the songs are very remote from its codes.

At times overly smooth and straying a bit too close to mindless acid jazz, Braddell's solo debut nonetheless carries promising weight, with detailed ambient and dub textures filling out opium-inspired slow-breaks and begging deep, reclined (and, as the title implies, singular) listening. The domestic Shadow reissue adds a second CD of remixes and bonus tracks.

I select a few tracks, what didn’t get that attention, or something happened that they didn’t release in the past. Finally, I’m so happy to release them without saying “these are old” because I produced them in a timeless way. I want to thank you guys for supporting me and follow my releases all those years. And for sure a big thanx to all people that I meet and had beautiful studio time and produced nice flows. Who I want to thank? Well, how snoop once said, I want to thank myself to being real in all those years and done all those with the real love to the music even how other acted. If you read to this, you are the one who now know that my mate Lee and I will go for a fancy spacy Atmo box next. A box of glory.

Instinct has a reputation for presenting fine compilations highlighting the best of more obscure labels worldwide. This first chapter in their future jazz series heralded styles and categories that have since become adopted into the electronica vernacular. Licensed from Germany's stalwart Compost label, home to many artists eking out their own singular takes on downtempo trip-hop and drum-and-bass, Volume 1 includes contributions from Rephlex's Gentle People (the Casio-squelched lullabies of "Journey"), and Max 404, who uses the gurgling opening synth riff of Gary Numan's "Cars" to devastating effect on the interstellar overdrive "Quiddity." Fauna Flash offers the sultry drum-and-bass sulk of "Sexual Attraction," and there are other outstanding contributions from Patrick Pulsinger, Shantel, Chaser, and Turntable Terranova. The Future Sound Of Jazz is rare groove funk for space critters across the universe.

Whale Space Journeys is a 2018 EP by a Polish producer who goes by the moniker Miraceti. Mamomam is the label.

Simon Green aka Bonobo returns with his third album and the kind of quantum leap in quality that very few artists make. "Days To Come" has the feeling of a classic all over - a big, brooding, emotional and uplifting record that you can dance to, do the dishes to, or sit and really study.
Green has always been expert at welding together music dripping with atmosphere, combining his own musical and technical talents in such a way as to make utterly organic-sounding machine music. This is not just a knob-twiddling producer but a multi-instrumentalist at work, who writes, plays and then manipulates almost every note of music he releases…

Rosa Morta is a 2016 collaborative album between Scottish keyboardists Craig Armstrong and Scott Fraser. This was released by the CMA label.

Laid-back London groove maestro Simon Green (alias Bonobo) returns after a considerable absence (on the recording front, at least) with this fourth full-length helping of his masterfully mellow monkey magic. While it's not terribly divergent from the future-jazz cut-ups that made his earlier efforts such an instinctively natural fit with the turn-of-the-century Ninja Tune stable, Black Sands evidences a clear evolution into a more distinctive, sophisticated, and complex style, resulting in his most musically adventurous work to date, and certainly his most modern-sounding. Green's clearly been keeping his ear to the ground for a bit of rhythmic reinvigoration: the immediately striking "Kiara" reworks the hauntingly elegant string refrain that opens the album with submerged vocal splices and a halting, head-nodding left-field hip-hop beat á la relative Ninja Tune newcomer Flying Lotus…

2012 three CD set containing three decades of music carefully selected by Toni Simonen. The Very Best Of Cafe Del Mar is an anthology which encompasses the most influential artists throughout the history of Cafe del Mar An entire culture surrounding chillout has evolved since the opening of the legendary venue, but what this album especially reflects is how Cafe del Mar has always been at the cutting edge of electronic music in its different genres: downtempo, acid jazz, trip hop, house, lounge, chillhouse and electronica. It will be treasured by all the fans which over the last 30 years, whether they have visited this venue or not, they have dreamed of being there, watching the sunset, while listening to the most innovative sounds of the season.

Chillout albums were all the rage during the early 2000s, but despite the attention, no one had made a record quite like Funki Porcini's Fast Asleep since the glory days of ambient techno, when the Orb's "A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld" merged Tangerine Dream, the Mad Professor, and Larry Heard into a collage of pastoral bliss. Fast Asleep, though obviously functional in a variety of contexts, wasn't designed to soundtrack trips back from the clubs or lazy nights at home with friends, and as such, it neatly side-steps the conscious hipness that usually compromises chillout records. James Braddell, a downbeat veteran stretching back more than a decade, crafted Fast Asleep to move in and out of its framework, with lengthy transitions introducing - or deconstructing - virtually every production…