Reviews
Baila Sahara Baila
Mariem Hassan & Vadiya Mint El Hanevi
This is the final album from one of the great voices of the Sahara: Mariem Hassan died in August 2015...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: March/2016
You’ve Been a Friend to Me
Sonya Cohen Cramer was a remarkable singer born into a distinguished American folk music family; her father was John Cohen...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: August/2024
The Shovel Dance
Lankum aren’t the only purveyors of doom-laden folk. London-based nine-piece Shovel Dance Collective show with this, their second album, that...
Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: December/2024
Hi-Life Jazz
Hi-Life Jazz is a super-cool and joyously good natured new release from the Ghanaian veteran. This is his 35th album...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: December/2022
The Original Sound of Mali
The dance band craze of the 1970s saw groups from all over West Africa putting their own spin on Latin...
Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: May/2017
Pique
Those familiar with the surname Morelenbaum or the Latin Grammy award-winning band Bala Desejo in the context of Brazilian music...
Reviewed by Charlotte Algar in issue: December/2024
Parlour Ballads
Parlour ballads, as a genre, get poor press as low-grade, middle-class Victoriana, but here’s Jon Boden at the piano (and...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: December/2024
Luoteniegut
Joik vocalist Ulla Pirttijärvi is among northern Finland’s strongest Indigenous voices. Pirttijärvi combines her powerful singing with West African influences...
Reviewed by Wif Stenger in issue: June/2025
Two Friends, One Century of Music
In August 2015 the two great names of tropicália – Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil – performed an all-acoustic set...
Reviewed by Alex Robinson in issue: May/2016
Our Garden Needs its Flowers
A very welcome reissue of an oddity from the Ivory Coast that was a huge regional hit when issued in...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: October/2018
