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Review of When They All Looked Up

When They All Looked Up

Kate Rusby

Pure Records

Rating: ★★★

For her first album of new material in six years Kate Rusby has recorded, mostly, songs of her own. These...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: June/2025

Review of El Sonido Bastardo

El Sonido Bastardo

Danzón El Gato

Lovemonk Records

Rating: ★★★★

Madrid’s Danzón El Gato occupy a similar sonic space to US band Khruangbin, melding psychedelic rock influences with a plethora...

Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: June/2025

Review of Peripheries of Nahavand

Peripheries of Nahavand

Araz Salek

Worlds Within Worlds

Rating: ★★★★

Salek is a Tehran-born, Canada-based ensemble leader and tar player versed in the mores of Iran’s dastgāh system of music,...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: June/2025

Review of Bayou Moonlight

Bayou Moonlight

Jeffery Broussard & The Nighttime Syndicate

Fairgrounds Records

Rating: ★★★★

From the second that Bayou Moonlight’s opening track, ‘Whatever’, hits you, it’s readily apparent that you’re in for a wild,...

Reviewed by Andrew Daly in issue: July/2025

Review of Dancing the Line

Dancing the Line

Ultan O’Brien

Top of the World

Nyahh Records

Rating: ★★★★★

Ultan O’Brien is a fiddler and composer hailing from County Clare in West Ireland with an interest in both the...

Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: July/2025

Review of Swilkie

Swilkie

Iona Lane

Iona Lane

Rating: ★★

The Swilkie is a dangerous whirlpool between Orkney and the Scottish mainland. It’s where, according to Icelandic legend, the salt...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: July/2025

Review of fygame

fygame

Thanos Stavridis & Drom

Thanos Stavridis

Rating: ★★★★

Cultural borders are a lot older, and more cloudy, than geo-political, linguistic and ethnic borders, and this recording demonstrates that...

Reviewed by Kim Burton in issue: July/2025

Review of Curandero

Curandero

Orkesta Mendoza

Top of the World

Glitterbeat Records

Rating: ★★★★

The US/Mexican frontier is a hotspot of hope and anguish, drugs and guns, rednecks and refugees. Orkesta Mendoza, formed by...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: June/2020

Review of Pipers

Pipers

Clarinet Factory

Supraphon

Rating: ★★★★

I’m a big fan of the clarinet. Of all the wind instruments it has the widest and most varied range...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: November/2020

Review of IYA: Songs for the Mothers

IYA: Songs for the Mothers

London Lucumi Choir

Lucumi Choir Records

Rating: ★★★

For their fifth album, London's Afro-Cuban community choir build on their tradition of performing songs to the Orishas (Yoruba deities)...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: May/2023

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