Our new found fascination. The magnificent new talent Koreless.

The trio’s first album as Ovall, We Don’t Care Who Knows That from last year, treaded between abstract experimentation and more commerical jazz and soul songs. And that’s basically what we find on Heart Fever, in a slightly more extreme format.

‘Feverish Imagination’ is rampantly commerical, fusing a characteristic hip-hop thump—after all, this is Mabanua, Japan’s own Soulquarian, on the drums—with chart melodies and, somewhere amongst it all, a Prince-like funkiness. But alongside that track, and ‘Beautiful Love’, which has loungy tendencies (and I mean it in a bad way), there is that trademark abstract output: ‘Water Dream’ is sampled-instrumentation mastery, making use of muffled handclaps and floating sea organs. And ‘Moon Beams’, complete with a reprise and all, is a mellow groove dictated by a jazz piano and signature rhodes.

It’s like Shingo Suzuki, the band leader, knew that with one serious radio flirt on there, Ovall could get away with turning in the instrumental, jam-oriented music that makes up the rest of the EP. And they succeeded—but they’re not getting those screechy guitar solos past me.

words Sven Carlsson

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Ovall’s MySpace, Twitter

A short film about Kidkanevil’s tribute beat tape to Raymond Scott. Released on Scott’s recent Birthday, it’s a great recognition for the incrediablly talented musician, composer, inventor and general pioneer.

Filmed by Tom Silverstone

Jamie xx hopped on the decks for a BBC Essential Mix recently. Apart from the usual goodness we’ve come to expect make sure you wait to the very end for Jamie’s remix of Radiohead’s ‘Bloom’ from the Radiohead remix collection TKOL RMX 1234567, it’s insane.

You can also download another great Jammie xx mix this time for BBC 6 Music here.

Orbital — Belfast
Phanes — Lucky Woman
Ifan Dafydd — No Good
Harvey Mandel — Christo Redentor
Koreless — Lost in Tokyo
Floating Points — Sais
Wiley — Colder (Instrumental)
Fantastic Mr. Fox — Untitled
Pärson Sound — Untitled
DJ Deeon — Fine Hoes
Luke Vibert — Analord
New Look — Janet
John Tejada — Unstable Condition
Univac — Untitled (Track 1)
Aardvarck — Nosestep (Original Mix)
Jean Jacques Smoothie — 2 People
Instra:mental — Pyramid
Grimm Limbo — Fortune Favours the Brave
R A G — Rage (Spaventi &Aroy Raw Mix)
Ronnie Dyson — All Over Your Face
Jamie xx — Far Nearer (Bootleg)
Axel Boman — Purple Drank
Loosse — About You (feat. Yolanda)
Anette Party — Moreno (feat. Anita Coke)
Gino Soccio — Dancer
Mr Beatnick — Synthetes
Funke, Sacha vs Nina Kraviz — Moses (Stimming Remix)
Jamie xx &Gil Scott Heron — I’ll Take Care of U (Special DJ Version)
Genius of Time — Houston We Have a Problem
Austin Eterno/The xx — I Remember Shelter
James Blake — Libra (Edit)
Pangaea — Bear Witness
Holly Miranda — Slow Burn Treason
Peter Horrevorts — Siren
Chuck Roberts — My House (Acappella)
Virgo Four — Do You Know Who You Are?
Morning Factory — Diane’s Love
Karen Pollack — You Can’t Touch Me (Roc &Kato Vocal Beat Trip Mix)
War — The World Is A Ghetto (Special Disco Mix)
Marshall Jefferson — Mushrooms (Justin Martin Mix)
Radiohead — Bloom (Jamie xx Rework)

Labeling Minneapolis-born vocalist Jose James as a jazz singer is so convenient that it verges on the unavoidable. Trained at The New School’s jazz program in New York and steeped in the traditions of Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and not least John Coltrane, James’ raspy baritone granted his quartet-based 2008 debut The Dreamer international acclaim and show bookings at jazz festivals across the globe.

But to typecast Jose James’ subsequent work according to genre conventions would do both him and the legacy of jazz music a disservice. “I try not to think about what I do in genres, because they’re all just collaborations that make sense at the time,” James explains from his newfound home in London, UK. Now signed to Impulse Records, the imprint that married John Coltrane with engineer Rudy van Gelder in the early 1960’s, Jose James is eager to point out that genre orthodoxy never was his or his forebears’ concern.

“People like Miles Davis or John Coltrane just let everything develop and did not put one record higher or lower than the next,” he says. “They just wanted to continually develop their approach to making music.”

Having emulated “that 1958 jazz sound” on The Dreamer, with “everything played together and in one take,” Jose James’ second album Blackmagic, released last year, saw his recording process go global and his sound venture elsewhere.

Contrary to the NYC-produced The Dreamer, Blackmagic was conceived remotely while Jose was on tour: on planes, after shows and in hotel rooms, whenever and wherever his busy touring schedule allowed. Tokyo DJ and producer Mitsu sent material from Japan, electronic pioneer Flying Lotus contributed from Los Angeles and dubstep giant Benga played his part from the UK. He did work in-person with Taylor McFerrin when he supplied Jose with a track – mid-air on a Singapore-bound flight.

The finished product became a hybrid of influences. Warm and traditionally minimal jazz offerings such as ‘Save Your Love for Me’ shared space with the hip-hop and neo-soul nod ‘Lay You Down’ and the mystique of minor-chord songs like Flying Lotus-produced ‘Blackmagic’.

“Songs like ‘Blackmagic’ and ‘Warrior’ have a plaintive quality to them,” James says of the duality of the sound on his sophomore release. “They’re not really menacing but there is a certain darkness there. I think that suits my voice and personality in an interesting way,” he explains.

“Some people were surprised that I would work with Benga and Flying Lotus on those songs, but I think they’re great composers. They’re both in the avant-garde of rhythmic development, and the particular tone on those tracks comes from a minor kind of feel and a lo-fi sound.”

Currently testing the waters of new sound by working with electronic producer Amp Fiddler, bass guitarist Pino Paladino and Detroit producer Leon Ware, among others, Jose James intends to continue to explore new musical horizons on his new album. And we should not be surprised; just as John Coltrane drew on the work of Albert Ayler and Sun Ra to create new, avant-garde beginnings for jazz music in the late 1960’s, Jose James is incorporating styles at the forefront of today’s musical development to deliver a fresh and exciting sound to his listeners.

Proud to work with British composer Richard Spaven, who “treats all styles of music equally,” James has an innate affinity for jazz but also the confidence to take his music elsewhere. “Great jazz musicians like Robert Glasper or Esperanza Spalding can make any kind of music,” he explains. “Quincy Jones started out playing bebop, and look where he went from there.”

Yet James’ ecclecticism does not disguise his love for the earlier stages of development in jazz music. For All We Know, basically an impromptu recording with renowned Belgian pianist Jef Neve, was released in May this year. Based on one six-hour recording session from 2009, the album draws on jazz standards, with Neve’s piano and James’ vocal guiding each other through 50 minutes of improvisation.

In the works for James is also a Lincoln Center tribute to Billy Strayhorn, evidence that he is at once hyperproductive and in touch with his musical roots. Further proof is the fact that James continues to frequent jazz festivals around the globe, and this summer will be no different.

Whether playing to a jazz-oriented crowd or a club demanding encouraging rhythms, James and his band perform a tightly-nit set where improvisation is key.

“With Blackmagic there is more space for the rhythmic improvisation you’d find in hip-hop music, the kind of J Dilla or Flying Lotus stuff. Melodic imrpovisation is easier with material from The Dreamer,” Jose says, and we should expect to see a little of each this summer – enough to please orthodox connaisseurs, and probably sway them too.

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Jose James’ website

Buy Blackmagic, For All We Know

So-called supergroups are often either unnatural or shortlived creations. Recall Raphael Saadiq’s short-lived Lucy Pearl or Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharell Williams’ Child Rebel Soldier formation (the album is on the way, I hear…). But when organic in formation and sound, gathering a few accomplished solo artists can prove a wise decision. Ovall, a trio of musicians associated with Tokyo’s Origami Productions, have us at Beatnik scrambling pennies for the next eastbound flight. If we’re lucky, Ovall will come to us first.

Shingo Suzuki, Mabanua and Shingo Sekiguchi have long been making music as solo artists. Yet despite their solo work, band leader Shingo Suzuki tells us that an album by the trio has been underway for about 10 years. On Wednesday 10 March, the project will be finalized, with the group’s first album Don’t Care Who Knows That being released by Origami productions. Ovall’s debut is an organic and soulful album that exudes chemistry and musical harmony between the three members.

Instead of a tug-of-war between egos in a group abundant in individual talent but lacking in chemistry, Ovall have develped an obviously potent musical interaction over the years. Shingo Suzuki describes a ”common sense” between him, Mabanua and Shingo Sekiguchi when it comes to making music.

“Each of us has a different musical background, but we have the same musical sense,” he explains. “We met in Tokyo’s jam scene, so we’ve often played together at clubs and made beats and songs in the studio. There is a good chemistry between us, and our is music continuing to improve at our gigs.”

While each member of Ovall brings something different to the table, the sound is clearly soul-oriented, with touches of funk, hip-hop and jazz that can render it subject to the neo-soul title. Regardless of whether that categorization is desirable, Ovall are making progressive urban music that carries on the work of forebearers like production team Soulquarians, whose late-90’s work left a great impression on the group. Mabanua cites the Soulquarians, whose core members were The Roots, Jay Dee and James Poyser, as a great influence on his work. Shingo Suzuki says he ”love[s] Common’s Like Water for Chocolate,” the now classic album from 2000 that the team shared production credit for.

The funky, hip-hop drifting soul that D’Angelo became known for during the same era also shaped the musical environment in which Ovall was formed.

“[In the 1990’s], Musicians in Tokyo would often play material from [D'Angelo's debut album] ‘Brown Sugar’ in the club. His live album from The Jazz Café made a big impact on the scene. I was very excited about D’angelo’s music, especially his VooDoo album. The sound, groove and voice of that record really appealed to me. But while those and plenty of other musicians are our influences, we have now progressed to the next phase.”

Justifiably eager not to be associated with a musical movement whose crescendo may have passed, any fan of soul-drenched, instrumental hip-hop will sense a gut attraction to the music of Ovall. This is the place for minimal, funky riffs, floating rhodes and horns, either in instrumental form or accompanied by vocalists, whether MC’s, singers or both. And, at least to an outsider, the music seems a natural soundtrack to the buzzing Tokyo streets, as if each song was made for exploring the Japanese capital aided by a pair of headphones to strengthen every new impression.

This, however, may just be the perception from the outside. “We’re working in Tokyo and we live in Tokyo for a long time. So it’s natural that you associate our songs with Tokyo,” Shingo Suzuki says. “But really, it all depends on your interpretation of the music. It is not tied to a particular place.”

Don’t Care Who Knows That is filled with treats, whether the songs stem from melodic soul, hip-hop or are introspective instrumental tunes. Second track Mary (Flying Beats), laced with tight percussion and keys matching the lingering clarionette solo, provides a good introduction to Ovall’s sound and creative process.

Songs are commonly conjured up by Shingo Suzuki and then added to in one way or another by Shingo Sekiguchi and Mabanua. This incremental process goes a long way to explain the integrity of the final product.

“Sometimes I have an idea in my mind, rythm, drum pattern, chord changing, tempo, or sometime I have a theme of the track. Sometimes we jam and come up with the songs spontaneously,” Shingo Suzuki explains. “I allow everyone ‘space’ for their ideas with respect for how they want to develop a song. Often Mabanua and Shingo add dimensions to my original ideas, and the end product is even more magical than the image I created.”

There is also room for more clinically structured songs on the album. On ‘Secret Time, ‘Take U To Somewhere’ and ‘Meaning of Love’, Mabanua provides the high-pitched lead vocals. Minimal and catchy ‘Secret Time’, with its subtle, multi-tracked vocals and smooth horns, reminds us of some of the best music the neo-soul movement has had to offer – which of course is a compliment.

Perhaps the most blatent sign that we are dealing with experienced musicians is that Ovall, aside from making clean cut and catchy singles such as ’Secret Time’, also have a clear soft spot for experimentation. Some of the album sounds like musical stream-of-consciousness more than conventional songs. Dreamy ’Shadows & Lights’ is a five-minute sequence where every beat is unique, drifting into an intense climax with pacy drumming by Mabanua underneath Shingo Suzuki’s vocals.

“I made this song with keyboard in my room. I wanted to express the surrealist idea of shadows & lights through music, and it’s also a conversation with myself. At first, I couldn’t find the words for the song, but finally they came to me,” says Shingo Suzuki.

So whether expressing surrealist ideas through introspective songs or conjuring up jam-based songs, Ovall is giving the world a taste of Tokyo’s dynamic music scene. Already blessing the audience in Japan with inspiring live sessions, it is imperative to more than a few fans outside of the country that Ovall begin to gig internationally. At Beatnik we are proud to play our part in making that happen.