As with previous records, Ten Years On presents an impressive range of grooves and styles, all sheltering from the grey English drizzle under a big jazz-funk umbrella. There’s the familiar vintage-sounding production, courtesy of guitarist and bandleader Eddie Roberts. The core of the band is the same as on 2008’s Plug & Play, with Simon Allen on drums, Pete Shand on Fender P-bass, and Joe Tatton on organ, piano and various other vintage keyboards.

The album has guests aplenty, some of them sending in their performances by email from distant shores. JD73 plays Rhodes on Dusty Groove, lending it a distinctly Headhuntersish sound. Seattle-based sax experimentalist Skerik adds dark, lush textures to the eight-minute soundtrack opus OOOM. Fellow Leeds luminary Sam Bell brings the percussion to Eddie’s Benson-eque disco-jazz on Cielo while Madrid-based Chip Wickham toots a mean flute on Chocolate Chip.

The CD version features a very special bonus track with a vocal contribution from Grace Potter, the 24-year-old ascendant rock-star and friend of the Mastersounds from the US festival scene. Nothing But the Water (II) is an NMS cover version of one of Grace’s own original tunes. Eddie came up with a new arrangement and the band recorded it in Leeds without Grace, who was busy writing her new album in L.A. We contacted Breakestra’s Miles Tackett who kindly agreed to record Grace’s vocal in his studio. Grace sang along to the backing-track, Miles sent back the vocal part over the ether, and Eddie mixed the finished tune – hey presto, and it’s funky as hell!