We’ve been talking about this for quite sometime, and it’s finally here, Black Radio by jazz extraordinaire, Robert Glasper. The album is outstanding, featuring fantastic covers from Coltrane‘s “Afro Blue” by Erykah Badu; the deliciously sexy version of Sade‘s “Cherish the Day” sung by Lalah Hathaway (never imagined this song getting anymore sexier!); even Nivana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” gets turned into contemporary jazz. The originals tracks are pure treats from Mos Def on ”Black Radio,” which really is the essence of this entire album, taking from Public Enemy‘s lyric from “Rebel Without a Pause,” “Radio, suckers never play me.” If radio were to sound like this, I supposed we would listen more often. Bilal graces the album on two tracks, “Always Shine,” with Lupe Fiasco, and “Letter to Hermione” with the perfect line of, “I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do, so I’ll just write some love to you.” I love the evolution and maturity of Bilal’s songwriting, and laid against Glasper, blends perfectly well.

With his main musicians in tow — drummer Chris Dave, electric bassist Derrick Hodge, and Casey Benjamin on saxes and vocoder, Black Radio gives us forward-thinking music, that is truly timeless. Other artists featured are  Stokely Williams (Mint Condition), Meshell Ndegeocello, Chrisette Michele, Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Musiq Soulchild, and Ledisi. You need Black Radio in your life. Check out a couple of songs below, then head over to iTunes, and ride Black Radio to the top!

“Black Radio” feat. Mos Def

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“Letter To Hermione” feat. Bilal

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Production duo, Tensei, comprising of two fellas Simple X and Midas Wells, met while studying at Southern Illinois University. The two soon realised their affinity to hip-hop (and music in general) and formed the group Tensei, meaning ‘heaven star’ in Japanese.

Now signed to Plug Research record label, home to the likes of Bilal and Quadron, they released One, an EP of nine tracks, mainly of instrumentals, with guest vocals from ADAD, Denmark of Crown Nation, and Scarlet Monk. They categorise their music as ‘modern fusion hip-hop’, which sums them perfectly, as their music covers much ground — alternative and cinematic where its essence is hip-hop. Their style defies the hip-hop standard of overt use of samples and lean more towards live instrumentation instead of the break beat and loops to fill their tunes.

Check out One below, which is also available at a largely discounted price on iTunes. You’re going to love this one! Tensei‘s upcoming full-length album will be released on Plug Research later this year. Stay tuned!

Guadeloupe born producer, singer, and songwriter, Cilla K released her self-produced album Fine Line, which featured a collaboration with Jneiro Jarel, “Evil Child” back in 2010 — a fusion of soul, hip-hop, R&B, and jazz. Now with her sophomore album New World Lullabies where she teams with Chicago based producers Tensei and Detroit producer, Tall Black Guy on songs.

The artwork for the album perfectly taps into your senses before even listening to it. New World Lullabies is just that —  a vocally rich journey where Cilla K describes it as journeying through, ”feelings like Love [and] joy… I also wanted to portray what we live nowadays… and the need to stay hopeful for a better life, a brighter future.” Blending hip-hop, soul, and alternative sounds to her production, this is a smooth downtempo collection of songs to warm your soul.

Check out the songs below, then head over to Cilla K‘s Bandcamp for purchase.

Monster Sneaker is a new production duo, who so happen to be label mates on Tru Thoughts — Xavier Jean a.k.a Azaxx and Jonathan Radford a.k.a Diesler. Blending their sounds on this 3-track EP, featuring the gorgeous vocals of Colonel Red on “Tainted Lovin’” on the opening track which builds from a minimal percussion arrangement to a full-on dirty bassline mid-tempo track. “Paintball” is a broken soulful house instrumental where the synths are fun and jovial, and “Chunky Walker” reminds me of what Winter Music Conference is all about — for me that is! Gosh, I’m going to miss it this year. *insert sad face*

Released yesterday on A Little Something Recording, and is available on the following sites for purchase. So BUY NOW – iTunes / Amazon / Juno

This month marks Wax Poetics magazine’s 10-year anniversary in which they pay homage to “one of the most iconic musicians in the history of African American music, the one and only Prince“! Did you catch that? A whole magazine centered around  His Royal Badness and a few other funketers from his camp. As always, there’s an audio element to their features, and this one comes in the form of funk master himself, DaM-FunK. Taking us through Prince B-Sides, unreleases, and 94 East (Prince’s early band with Pepe Willie and Andre Cymone), the fifty-odd minutes of synth-funk, DaM-FunK really goes in on this mix, sprinkling his own flavoured funk on tracks; it’s great! Check it out below, and get yourself a copy of Wax Poetics at your local news agent for a an education in Minneapolis Sounds!

It’s been quite some time since Kissey Asplund has graced the pages of Muphoric Sounds, and it’s not without query; we’ve had our eye on her awaiting new music. This little surprised surfaced last week, in the form of Wonderkiss. Wonderkiss is Kissey Asplund, hailing from Sweden, and living in Manhattan, New York and Brooklyn native, TK Wonder.

Having met back in 2008 at The Knitting Factory in New York City, each performing independently — Kissey with Ty Segall and TK Wonder with Taylor McFerrin — it wasn’t until running into each other again a year later during a time where Kissey had started to delve into beat making to produce music for own album, the two decided to meet up in to share musical ideas. Instantly, TK gravitated to Kissey’s sounds, and they gave birth to Wonderkiss. Heartfukk, Part 1 is a walk with sexy electronica, where each song pulsates to a tribal beat as TK Wonder raps and sings. All I can say is, we are digging this!

Check out the video for “Get Down And Dirty,” then head over to their Facebook fan page for a Free Download.