Saudade

Former one-half of UK electronic duo-fantastique Fila Brazillia Steve Cobby put out his first solo outing for 18 years on his Declasse label in 2014. It’s a brilliant (re)start to his solo career, an album of instrumental electronica, synth funk, sample soul, sequenced jazz and all sorts of club-adjacent fusions. Setting out his stall from the very beginning, Cobby kicks off with a nearly nine-minute epic opener “Passerines,” which begins with an African thumb piano and percussive polyrhythms, gets some deep house pads and synth stabs, then flips into an uplifting, ultra-modern post-jazz funk sonic melange; and that’s just the first track. Ranging from soporific, drifty soundscapes to cleverly assembled and highly idiosyncratic dance floor movers, Saudade is defined by its combination of expert programming, intriguing audio juxtapositions, confident playfulness and its quietly yearning sense of melody.