Australia loves Mark Farina. The Chicago-born, San-Fran-based DJ-producer struck a chord (every pun intended) with us long ago through his dedication to uncovering, showcasing and supporting some of the finest boompty-boompty house out there. Likewise, his tight relationship with West Coast label OM has similarly seen him sit atop the house heap for over a decade. Singles like ‘Dream Machine’, ‘Cali Spaces’ and ‘To Do’ remain in DJ boxes and suburban collections years after their release.

Arguably though, nothing has more defined Farina than his acclaimed Mushroom Jazz series. What started in 1992 as a short run of mixtapes featuring obscure, jazz-infused, downtempo and smoked-out beats has evolved into its own genre, a slick, smooth and always quality snapshot of Farina’s current musical moods and flavours. Volume six in the series dropped late last year and it’s been on high rotation at mine since then. Perfect for late night jibberish sessions, early afternoon beers and everything in between, Mushroom Jazz Volume Six is the first in the series to widely showcase OM’s own recent foray into hip-gop.

The label launched its own sub-label – Om Hip Hop – in 2006 and has since nurtured a number of hip hop, downtempo and soul acts like J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science, Colossus, Strange Fruit Project and King Kooba, many of which are featured on this latest release. Amongst the gold on volume six is ‘Baaaby’ by Ta’Raach (what a bassline, and vocal), Jamal’s ‘Jamal’s 141’ and ‘This Beat’, and ‘Ba Dada’ by The Jazzual Suspects. OM labelmates Collosus and J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science also feature heavily throughout, making this an OM-centric release, but the quality is there, so it’s irrelevant.

In short, this is a fine continuation of the Mushroom Jazz series. Mark Farina shows his far-reaching A&R talents are still firmly in check, and his mixing throughout is faultless as you’d expect. For those yet to hear any of the series, this is certainly a worthy snapshot, and will no doubt have you tracking down volumes 1-5 in no time. 4.5/5