The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble is a group from San Diego who released their first album on Colemine Records back in 2015. The band’s last full-length album, Build Bridges, came in 2019. Now they are back once again with another full-length, Step Down. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble rock an instrumental style of soul and funk with a long history, drawing upon contemporaries like Budos Band and El Michels Affair, then going back through a lineage that includes Poets of Rhythm, The Meters, and The Bar-Kays, just to name a few.

Daniel Maunick is a British musician who has been working in the industry for long time as a deejay and producer, producing albums by artists like Marcos Valle and groups like Azymuth and Incognito (featuring his father, Jean-Paul Maunick on guitar and vocals). After all this time behind the scenes, Daniel Maunick finally stepped into the spotlight when he released his debut solo album, Macumba Quebrada, in 2019. Now he’s come back with another full-length album to build upon that foundation with Persistence.

London artist Reginald Omas Mamode IV had been releasing music for a couple years before releasing his self-titled debut album in 2016. Since that time, he’s been honing his skills and further carving out a niche for himself with a couple of albums, EPs, and singles. Now, three years after his last album, Where Are We Going?, Mamode is back with an ambitious fourth album, Stand Strong. As you might infer from the title of the album, Stand Strong is Mamode’s love letter and inspirational message to the African Diaspora.

Korea Town Acid is a Toronto-based producer. She had been deejaying and performing live improvised electronic music sets for years before releasing the EP Mahogani Forest on Cosmic Resonance in 2018. She made her debut on URBNET last year with the release of her album *Metamorphosi*s. Now she’s right back with another full-length album, Cosmos. One of the great joys of following a musician’s career is being able to witness the moment when they level up.

Selah Sue is an artist from Belgium who released her debut self-titled album back in 2011 to much acclaim in Europe. She built upon that success with her sophomore album, Reason, in 2015. Now, after a seven-year hiatus, Selah Sue returns with her third full-length album, Persona. As the opening track, “Kingdom,” slowly builds to a crescendo before dropping the beat and Selah Sue starts rhyming, it becomes clear that Selah Sue is not messing around with her return to the spotlight.

Saskatoon producer Factor Chandelier has been making music for over two decades now, collaborating along the way with artists like Ceschi, Myka 9, AWOL One, Def3, and Kay the Aquanaut, just to name a few. He’s released concept albums, compilation albums, and instrumental music. He’s released some bangers, and he’s released some experimental projects as well. In taking stock of all this, Factor realized that it was going to be the twentieth anniversary of his first solo album, Time Invested.

Madwreck is a producer from Charlotte, best known for his work as one-half of the production duo Dirty Art Club. In recent years, he’s remerged as a solo artist, with his most recent project, Newark Valley High, dropping just this past September. Now he’s back with another project, Fly Pose. Dirty Art Club wasn’t known for necessarily being a groundbreaking group, but they did have a reputation for making some of the most stop-in-your-tracks beautiful beats that you could wish to hear.

C.Shreve the Professor is an emcee from Asheville, North Carolina who has been working for over a decade, both as a solo artist and as part of the group Free the Optimus. His last album came in 2020, when he collaborated with Bristol producer ILE Flottante to make the album ILE.Pro. Now he’s back with a teaser EP done with D.R.U.G.S. Beats before his next big project drops called Must Be The Drugs.

Don Leisure is a producer based in Cardiff, Wales, perhaps best known as half of the hip hop/soul duo Darkhouse Family, alongside Earl Jeffers. In 2017, he released his debut solo album, Shaboo, a beat collage type of album in the tradition of Donuts. The title of the album came from Leisure’s uncle, the late Bollywood actor, Nasser “Shaboo” Bharwani. Five years later, Leisure is ready to return with a sequel project, Shaboo Strikes Back.

Sly5thAve, born Sylvester Uzoma Onyejiaka II to a Nigerian father and African American mother from Detroit, grew up in Austin before moving to Denton to study jazz piano at UNT. It was at UNT that he met another brilliant pianist and composer from Monterrey, Mexico, Roberto Verástegui. The roots of the album were born during Sly’s first visit to Mexico, where he and Verástegui began mapping out their collaboration over sips of agua de Jamaica – a drink made from water, hibiscus flower, and sugar.