Styles Upon Styles Part Two - Pacific Soul Warriors

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

This compilation is the second in a series of start-up collections from Auckland's Sugarlicks Records, a label which has sprung from city venue the Khuja Lounge. A more cohesive affair than its bit-of-everything predecessor, its 12 tracks coalesce into an album which swings neatly from hip-hop to jazz grooves to languid soul while delivering a bunch of stand-out songs which rise above being mere genre exercises.

Among those are Nat Rose's acoustic opener Mana Wahine, D Kamali/Lole's stoned soul Decide, and Tony Battle/Nemo's Afro-hip-hop All I see is Pain. Add a few tangential instrumentals, such as the nocturnal noodlings of Thisinformation's Extension of tha Mindz (featuring local keys star Mark de Clive Lowe), and you've got one vital collection and further signs of a deep heap of local promise.

Label: Sugarlicks Recordings