Reviews
Contreband Mentality
Les Frères are a 14-strong Paris-based Afro-beat collective who, for some bizarre reason, all take the same surname in the...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2012
The Rough Guide to Undiscovered World
The Rough Guide to Un dis cove red World is a showcase compilation. It is the CD companion to record...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Nov/Dec/2012
Victor Menace!!!
Victor Menace sounds like a cartoon debt collector but is in fact Ruth Theodore’s new band. Her previous album, White...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: March/2012
Tuff Times Never Last
Seven-piece collective Kokoroko are one of a clutch of UK acts that channel the righteous grooves of Afrobeat into their...
Reviewed by Andrew Taylor-Dawson in issue: September/2025
Diamond Fingers
Among a crowded field of West African guitar heroes, Malian Mama Sissoko stands out as an artist of keen sensitivity...
Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: April/2026
World Routes: On The Road
World Routes (currently broadcast on Sunday evenings) is BBC Radio 3’s flagship world music programme. And to my knowledge, there...
Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: Jan/Feb/2012
Shamrock City
In 1910, a young man named Michael Conway left rural poverty behind in Ireland and took passage across the Atlantic...
Reviewed by Geoff Wallis in issue: July/2013
Artifacts
“Miles Davis, Fela Kuti and Mulatu Astatke walk into a bar…” No, it's not a joke but one way of...
Reviewed by Russell Higham in issue: April/2017
Egoli
All aboard Damon Albarn's exhilarating Africa Express again, this time bound for Johannesburg. Albarn travelled to South Africa last year...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Aug/Sep/2019
La Légende de Dakar
One thing that can never be faked or replicated is the easy, yet super-tight swing of a band that has...
Reviewed by Howard Male in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
