White labels catch you with your pants down, which is their subversive charm. Even if an album cover doesn't depict the band themselves, its artwork will still conform to certain rules, sending out all kinds of subliminal messages, alienating or attracting you, according to your sophistication or prejudice. It's easy to be cynical, recalling Stock, Aitken & Waterman's elaborate 'Roadblock' hoax of the 80s, where a batch of white label promo singles caused a buzz in the clubs, bringing blushes to the cheeks of DJs who'd mistaken it for a rare slice of 70s funk. And then there was Eddie Hinton, whose profile failed to grace the classic deep soul album Very Extremely Dangerous, and as a result was assumed by many to be black. He remains that rarest of breeds, a bona fide white soul artist.

For Soul Jazz Records, the game doesn't stop with the finished artwork. The label's tricky, minimalist style insists that (like George Michael), you 'listen without prejudice'. Their latest signing, Esperanto, certainly has something for everyone, bringing together timeless elements of pop and soul into a contemporary groove which is at once mellow and brassy. It's the brainchild of Cyril McCammon, perhaps best known for his keyboard work with Freakpower, whose 'Tune In, Turn On. Cop Out' is speeding up the charts as we speak, on the back (or should that be backside) of a certain jeans commercial. Cyril's also worked with Barry K. Sharpe, who scored an acid jazz club hit with 'The Masterplan', a few years back, and whose ex-partner Diana Brown is now doing well with Indo-China Records.

Esperanto, however, is Cyril's baby. It's hard to place in a historical context, transcending as it does the chord structures and arrangements of the decades. What does shine through is Cyril's eclectic taste, and his respect for the great songwriters of pop music. His inventory of influences encompasses Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Donnie Hathaway, Lamont Dozier, Roy Ayers, Leroy Hutson, Carole King, and even stretches as far back as Lionel Bart and Cole Porter. He's also managed to assemble a formidable transatlantic line-up of musicians, and guest vocalists including Don Blackman (ex-Janet Jackson), Don-E and Donna Gardner, now signed to Geffen Records as part of Raw Stylus.

Esperanto is a typical Soul Jazz release, in its skilful juxtaposition of ancient and modern analogue and digital. Cyril plays a range of Rhodes, Moog and Oberheim keyboards, but sampling has proved a harder nut to crack. He still talks in terms of, "the easy way out", and, "a lack of self-belief'. The album espouses Cyril's values of love and fellowship, with a repertoire of self-penned love-songs which are sincere and sensual without slipping into sentimentality. It's modern soul at its best, a re-statement of traditional songwriting at a time when the harangues of rap threaten to swamp the emergent UK r&b chart.