Improvising musicians who see themselves as much as producers as players have been with us for some time, and Julius Rodriguez is a fresh addition to the lineage. The 23 year-old sees audio software, and the studio trickery of George Martin, as a key weapon in his creative arsenal, alongside piano and drums, thus making it no surprise that this major label debut has the kind of attention to detail in the mix, often with a discreet digital swirl and swoosh, that would be heard on contemporary hip-hop or electronica. Such eclecticism leads Rodriguez down many roads, none more exciting than ‘Two Way Street’, in which an opening drums-saxophone duet full of artfully manipulated machine-based crackle placed right in the slipstream of the ride cymbal makes for a zestful rise of energy before the entry of the rest of rhythm section pushes things into the familiarly climactic realm of hard swing.

Elsewhere, the gospel influence in Rodriguez’s world is prevalent, as is soul and modern pop, and he is mostly able to tie these disparate strands together with very assured coherence. Rodriguez might consider steering some of his psychedelic-acoustic hybrids a bit further left in the future, but this set is a smart salvo at this early stage of his career.