Celebrating 10 years of worthy releases, 'Off The Shelf' trawls back through Far Out and, its sister, Solaria's archives to digs out a few gems that have until now only been issued on 12".
Far Out occupies a curious position. On the one hand the label was formed to re-release forgotten Brazilian classics on CD, but while doing this label head, Joe Davis, also began nurturing the often equally under-represented jazz influenced UK dance music.
Initially this occurred through artists such as Patrick Forge and Chris Franck's Da Lata project releasing through Far Out, but in 1998 the Solaris imprint was formed as a 12" outlet for globally inspired producers - in the process becoming associated with the nu-jazz and broken beat scene.
Naturally there is history on 'Off The Shelf', but the album points forward more than back and opens refreshingly with Difusion's (aka DJ Venom) 2002 release 'Khameleon'. A fine piece of jazzy broken beat, as ever the instrumentation is sparse but it's all in the detail, bass line and returning trumpet refrains.
Big Bang's 'Colours', begins to take us a bit further back into the vaults as Simone Serritella unleashes skipping nu-jazz beats, walking bass lines and mute horns.
Democustico's 'Brazil' acts a modern, but poignant reminder of why the labels exist (even if it was only recorded last year), while Da Lata's 1996 production 'Ponteio' still sounds as far-sighted today as it did then - reaching across time and geography to marry nascent broken beats to Brazilian Afro beats.
Flytonix's 'Elevator' was recorded in 2001, but has only just received its first release on this album. It shuffles smoothly into 4 Hero in their Nature's Plan guise, with their joyous 'Smile' from the Summer of 2000.
Mark Pritchard's superb Afro beat inspired 'Strike Hard' was released last year, under his Trouble Man moniker, and sadly for those who missed it is already deleted. Salidor's 'Eyile' mixes drum 'n' bass into the rhythm cocktail, which then flows into Roni Size's warm and deep remix of Azymuth's 'Fanco De Conta'.
Banzo's 'Banzo Theme', a 'Theme From Shaft' for the Naughties, returns to broken beat in its more a la mode laid-back, funky vibe. This paves the way to Diffusion's return with the equally funky 'Second Future'.
Finally, and continuing the thread into the future, Mark Pritchard returns to remix Azymuth's 'Carambola' into a firing broken stomp.
A superb finish to a totally indispensable record.
by Ben Osborne