Reviews

High Above Harlesden [Box Set]

Creation Rebel

Creation Rebel are pioneers of the UK dub scene. Emerging from working-class London in the late 1970s, their music stepped...

Reviewed by Celeste Cantor-Stephens in issue: May/2024

Ye Ankasa | We Ourselves

Jembaa Groove

Jembaa Groove’s 2022 debut album was a highlife highlight (a Top of the World in #177). The Berlin-based group elegantly...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: June/2024

We Have Waited Too Long

The Jazzanians

At the height of apartheid in 1983, Darius Brubeck, son of the legendary jazz giant Dave Brubeck and an accomplished...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2024

PsychoTropical

Los Guayabo Brothers

Guayabo is Colombian slang for hungover, but it can also mean nostalgia for your homeland, the famous saudade in Portuguese,...

Reviewed by Andy Cumming in issue: June/2024

All About the Bones

Chris Smither

American folk and blues singer Chris Smither marks his upcoming 80th birthday with All About the Bones, a moody and...

Reviewed by Billy Rough in issue: June/2024

My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Anyone who enjoyed the 2019 Smithsonian Folkways album Songs of Our Native Daughters is going to love My Black Country....

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2024

Tu Gulî

Olcay Bayir

Olcay Bayir is a British/Kurdish-Alevi singer-songwriter who sings in Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian, and Tu Gulî is her third album,...

Reviewed by Tom Newell in issue: June/2024

Find Your Flame

Nubiyan Twist

When artists pile on the special guests, sometimes you wish they wouldn’t. However, this nine-piece powerhouse from Leeds have managed...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: June/2024

Souvenirs

Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru

The world lost a unique composer with the passing of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru at the age of 99 last year....

Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: April/2024

Mawja

Aziza Brahim

The Sahrawi refugee camps are situated out in the deserts of southern Algeria, and are home to the victims of...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: April/2024