Tucked out of the way towards the back of the latest ‘Worldwide Family’ comp, selected by Kutmah, is this chilled tune. Doc Daneeka and Abigail Wyles - Tobyjug. Come down music. 

So far a lot of this blog has been about jazz and I’ve neglected some of the other fantastic music that has been getting regular plays round mine, and for one such album that came out at the beginning of the year I promised to write about a while ago- the time has come!

I once read somewhere that writing about dance music was particularly hard- what else could you say other than ‘this album is great- really funky’ or perhaps the reverse if it wasn’t. There’s a lot of truth in this, particularly when a lot of music writing relies on the history of the genre, and the background of the artist in question. But when a genre is relatively new, you don’t have any of those things to fall back on. So us lazy writers have to buck up our ideas a bit and delve deeper, and in turn write better. But is ‘dance’ a new genre? Of course not, but it is a confusing one. Dance music should do what it says, right? Make you want to dance. But we all know that it’s used as a catchall term for anything electronic to downbeat to the other end, jungle and grime with everything in between, some made for dancing, some made for chilling but all made for feeling and listening.

No one knows this more than the renowned DJ Gilles Peterson. I’ve gone on about my respect for him previously, and no doubt will do again at various points, so I’ll keep in brief here. Many of you will know him from his Radio 1 show, perhaps from his club DJ days, or from his excellent compilations and record label- Brownswood. Last year saw the 6^th Brownswood Bubblers compilation – a series dedicated to mainly unsigned acts that Gilles champions, as well as a Brownswood Electric compilation. He has always been about dance music- from jazz, Latin, hip hop, all kinds of beats, soul, funk, his tagline being ‘joining the dots’. This he certainly does, and while retaining more than a healthy respect for the old guard, he promotes so much new music and new styles. The dubstep scene is pretty damn healthy at the moment, and GP has been a part of that. Subsequently his compilations have always been ahead of the game, always fresh.

So it’s with much faith when we trust his judgement as he hands over to two of his favourite DJs for the next compilation on Brownswood – ‘Worldwide Family’, put together by Lefto and Simbad, which was released January this year. It’s a double disc, stuffed full of funky beats, disco, dubstep, future boogie, electronica, the whole gamut of styles you associate with GP in 2011. For me Lefto’s disc, CD1, has the edge. What a smooth start from the Uphigh Collective from Leuven, Belgium and a singer called Delvis – totally European sounding slow grooves, almost a touch of acid jazz in the bass and the keys solo. The eerie ‘Rake’ from producer Exile with its wobbly bass and electric screams in the background is a deep track, setting up an awesome rework of the soul classic ‘London Town’ (originally by Light of the World) by Dela and the Headlesshunters. This is perfect club fodder, vocoded vocal, great tune and hookline – classic old dance made fresh again! Lefto looks to Japan for the next track, ‘Take Back’ from grooveman Spot, a beat heavy killer, then the UK for a brass band version of Inner City’s ‘Good Life’- real fun and very funky! A more soulful tip next from 74 Miles Away with ‘Same Dream Again’ and another highlight is French disco and future boogie maestro Onra with his ‘The Perfect Match’- definitely one for your Saturday nights in the club.

French dude Simbad does the honours for CD2. His is an equally eclectic mix, kicking off with a slightly electric folky thing from Airhead ‘Stilt Beetles’, and Illum Sphere continues in this groove. ‘I don’t think so’ is a different proposition, a far more messed up little mix of samples, hooks and beats. A sick beat Simbad calls it, and that it is. A slow slice of house music follows, before the sparse sounds of Greymatter and Klic have just enough going to keep it interesting. There’s a touch of jazz from Afrikan Sciences & Kebbi, with more than a touch of African spirituality to it, and a bit more house from Ave Blaste. Other great moments from Simbad’s selection are the dubstep grooves of Cooly G and Zed Bias, fresh fresh tracks from the UK scene showing another side to mix and the chilled Latin ‘Summer Badness’ from our compiler himself!

Great great compilation to kick off the new year, the Brownswood label pushing itself further out on every new release, definitely inspiring stuff. Hope to do a feature on two of the newest Soul Jazz compilations soon – Future Bass and Riddim Box for more wicked, sharp electronic beats, and also the debut from James Blake…