For years West London was the epicentre of broken beat.

Artists like Dego and Mark Mac from 4Hero, Afronaught, Mark Force, Seiji, Kaidi Tatham from Bugz In the Attic, Domu, Mark De Clive Lowe and Phil Asher brought out quality release after release. Times have changed though. The Co-Op - the club where all the main joints were first broken - is no more, the sound has gone worldwide and is no longer just associated with London postcodes containing ‘N’ and ‘W’. Meanwhile, the originators of the sound have also branched into House and adapted to the four on the floor.

One of those originators, Domu, has his second house release on Papa Trax. ‘What's Your Name’ is comparable to its predecessor, ‘Odyssey’, in that it features a similarly old school Chicago feel with a big bouncy bass but cleverly uses Toots’ classic ‘5446 Was My Number’ the main vocal riff.

Also on Papa is Tarantulaz's ‘3 Sided’ EP. Three tracks – obviously. The first ‘Lend Your Ears’ is a deep house with a hypnotic acid-style riff running through it and a vocal by Frank McComb. Next on mic duties is Robert Owens on ‘Step By Step’ - a lot more bumpy than his signature style and none the worse for it. Keyboard magic supplied by Mark De Clive Lowe. The EP is rounded off by the rather ordinary dub ‘Listen’.

Another track to feature the Kiwi keyboardist is Atjazz's ‘Sweat No Sleep’. Out on Mantis, this collaboration has a jazz-techno feel which stays (just) the right side of noodly in the slightly deeper ‘Broken Soul’ remix.

Atjazz's Martin Iveson also pops up with a remix for Slowly's ‘Find Illusion’ on their eponymous Slowly EP on Flower Records, giving a slightly deeper re-rub of the vocal garage original with a little hint of 1980s slap bass. The standout track from the EP is the (mainly) instrumental ‘Black Sun’ on the flip featuring a drop in tempo and a killer synth riff which is meant to be a tribute to Detroit but comes off more like an early 90s Kerri Chandler joint.

While the flow of broken beat emanating from its original home has dwindled to a trickle there are still some prolific producers who are putting it out there. One is Danny Native aka Altered Natives whose ‘A Thousand Days Of Patience’ is chock-full of nasty riddims and the odd bruk house joint. Coming soon on Fresh Minute is his broken cut ‘Rass Out’ and out now on Moreaboutmusic is ‘Naked’ featuring Aisling Stephenson on vocals, which also comes with his own house “verzion”.

Another to check is Brooklyn's Hiro Awanohara aka Yellowtail. Taken from the forthcoming Grand And Putnam LP ‘Everything Is Alright’ is a broken soul cut with vocals by Monday Michuru out on Bagpak records. The pick of the remixes are Kay Suzuki's Bipolar remix which keeps the jazz soul flavour of the original but toughens up the beats for the dancefloor and adds some nasty distorted bass and the boogie-flavoured house version from U-Key.

Probably the one tune which is most associated with the Co-Op and the broken beat sound is 4 Hero's ‘Hold It Down’. Lady Alma, the vocalist behind it, has her debut solo release, ‘Running For Nothing’, out on Raw Fusion. Produced by that man again, Mark De Clive Lowe, the original mix is in the same stirring vein as ‘Hold It Down’, but it's the Simbad remix which stands out adding a stuttering drum pattern and winding ‘Deep Burnt’-style chords.

There seem to be a lot of dodgy cover versions doing the rounds at the moment. Doubly dodgy in that the fashion seems to be to use a slightly different title, maybe fooling some people into thinking that they are original compositions. Little Louie's Vega records has an uninspired version by Duce Martinez of the Salsoul fave, Love Committee' ‘Just As Long As I Got You’ – perhaps most memorable to the old school heads as the basis for Frankie Bones' classic Looney Tunes cut on Nu Groove. This one, which goes by ‘Just As Long’ adds brass and flute but doesn't really do anything interesting with it.

Much better is King Unique's serviceable cover version version of the jazz funk classic ‘Look Ahead’ by Aquarian Dream out on Defected, entitled ‘Love Is What You Need’. The pick of the remixes is the Knee Deep version which is closest to the spirit of the original. It’s worth remembering, however, that definitive house/garage version of this tune was made 14 years ago by Danny Tenaglia and tuned up at the time by Murk.

Coming soon on Strut Records is a very interesting collaboration between cult Ethiopian jazz pianist Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics. ‘Inspiration Information 3’, ranges from the straight ahead jazz of Anglo Ethio suite to the psychedelic guitar of ‘Live From Tigre Lounge’. Mulatu's music is often mislabelled as Afrobeat due to his country of origin when his main focus is jazz, which in his rendition is just as likely to be influenced by Latin as African music.

More of an orthodox Afrobeat influence is to be found in Sumo's latest offering ‘Mystic Drum’ on Lovemonk. Featuring Ugandan singer Sammy Kasule on vocals, this follows in the path of recent strong Afro house tracks such as Da Lata's ‘This Is Not Your Job’ by incorporating an African influence wider than the traditional Fela Kuti template. There's a percussion orientated remix by Pepe Link and Sumo also provide a more techy take in their Bangana guise.

Another slant on Afro beat comes in the surprising form of Laurent Garnier's latest release on PIAS. ‘Gnanmankoudji’ might read like a bad scrabble hand but the saxophone-driven track is a reasonable attempt at Afro/broken fusion.

Following the excellent ‘Soulparlor’ EP from last year, BPSS have another EP out this time from French act Flint. This one's more of a mixed bag with the dodgy hip house cut ‘Booty Shakers’ and the rather run of the mill sample-based house title track. Much better are the remaining tracks, bruk-house number ‘Please Move’ and the pitched down ‘Minha Perdiao’, the techy bass providing a great foil to the Brazilian vocals.

More lusophonica, this time from Sweden. Rasmus Faber's album, ‘Where We Belong’ on Farplane is in the main rather disappointing but contains at least one gem in ‘Na Minha Terra’ - the acoustic guitar and Clara Mendes' vocals providing a welcome harbinger of summer.

Frank McGahon.