Jazzanova & Thief

Jazzanova arrived in 1997 with "Fedime's Flight," an exquisitely layered production that had more in common with dancefloor jazz-funk truffles by Azymuth and Lonnie Liston Smith than with anything contemporary. Minus a couple specific sampled components, the track could have easily been mistaken for the work of an obscure late-'70s act, but the group's name -- also the descriptive title of a coveted Ira Kris album released on pioneering German jazz label MPS in 1971 -- signaled to seasoned crate diggers that it was a European product of modern synthesis. Since "Fedime's Flight...