Reviews
The Pearl Album (Live in Celebration)
Alternating songs with jigs, reels, slides, marches, hornpipes and airs, The Pearl Album celebrates 30 years of music making by...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: June/2025
Two Boats Under the Moon
Those who have followed Donald Lindsay’s musical output may be surprised to learn that Two Boats Under the Moon is...
Reviewed by Huw Hennessy in issue: July/2025
Jawaya Jathum
Jawaya Jathum translates as ‘The Guitarist and The Music Lover’, these being Polycarp Otieno (aka Fancy Fingers) and sweetly soulful...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: August/2025
Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XVII: Gnawa World Blues
Majid Bekkas with Nguyên Lê, Hamid Drake
Gimbri and oud player Bekkas, guitarist Lê and drummer Drake: each has an extensive CV of collaboration through and between...
Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: August/2025
Taiga Trans
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, the eight-piece collective Fauna offer up a colourful tapestry of sounds in which Eastern instruments and...
Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: May/2026
The Woodbine & Ivy Band
This Manchester collective create spirited folk-rock of a distinctly 1969 vintage. The rapid-fire drums, guttural guitar, throbbing bass and backing...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Apr/May/2012
Na Kozonga
It’s been eight years since Kinshasa’s Jupiter Bokondji released his debut album, Hotel Univers. Backed by the tight-as-a-mosquito’s-tweeter Okwess band,...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Aug/Sep/2021
Les Nuits
This collaboration between the Anglo-Middle Eastern singer and Egyptian composer and multi-instrumentalist Samy Bishai emerged from a stage collaboration with...
Reviewed by Jim Cumming in issue: March/2014
Up the Hill and Through the Fog
The COVID-19 pandemic exacted a particularly tough toll on The Slocan Ramblers. Bandmates Adrian Gross (mandolin) and Darryl Poulsen (guitar,...
Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: July/2022
Water of Life
Water of Life is the third album from Afro-Finnish collective Maajo, a group who have built a reputation for melding...
Reviewed by Alex De Lacey in issue: March/2023
