Drummer Jas Kayser has already made an impression before the release of this debut as a leader, playing with such hot young things as Alfa Mist, Poppy Ajudha, Nubya Garcia and Jorja Smith and winning last year’s Jazz FM’s Breakthrough Act award. Her own heritage spans such disparate locations as Dorset and Panama, and she’s joined by a similarly diverse band of young players in a project that could only have been been created in the melting pot of the contemporary London scene. As you might expect, the compositions prioritise rhythm and texture over harmony but that’s not a weakness when the rhythm team is as locked into such a beguilingly subtle, grooving pocket as Kayser generates with Daisy George (on full-fat upright bass) and percussionist Joao Caetano. It also helps that the featured soloists are so strong: Giacomo Smith and Christos Stylianides both have really distinctive voices on their instruments, while Alfa Mist colleague Jamie Leeming adds suitable clipped and propulsive Afrobeat guitar licks, and turns on the pedals for some creatively modernistic proggy solos and textures when required. Influences from both sides of the wider black Atlantic are clearly audible in the mix, blending together on the nifty horn charts for ‘Half Race’ which also features some stirring spoken word from Kayser’s twin brother Aalvk and an outstanding solo from Stylianides, matched by the pairing of Ava Joseph’s coolly-poised vocal with Smith’s burning alto sax on ‘Darkness In The Light’. There’s room for development in the material, and not all of the compositions stick in the mind, but the quality of the players makes this a standout from the scene.