Reviews

A Blade Because a Blade is Whole

Alabaster DePlume

Emerging from the UK’s experimental underground, DePlume’s Spotify statistics indicate that his concoction of poetry and jazz provides a taste...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: May/2025

Vikings Memories

SKÁLD

SKÁLD take their name from the Norse balladeers who told tales of gods and men in the medieval past. The...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: December/2020

Subcontinental Drift

Sultans of String with Anwar Khurshid

Canadian folk-fusion outfit Sultans of String have gone for the word-play double – both band name and album name –...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: June/2016

Bhattacharya/Grønseth/Wessel

Bhattacharya/Grønseth/Wessel

The dialogue between Hindustani classical and jazz music has a storied past. This latest effort to expand the lexicon draws...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: June/2017

Mount Matsu

Yīn Yīn | YĪN YĪN

Dutch group YĪN YĪN’s third album is a joyous concoction of surf guitar, retro synth and East Asian influence. The...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: March/2024

NRTYA

SAICOBAB

NRTYA is an easy record to celebrate but a difficult one to enjoy. The album fully realises its mission of...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: May/2024

Jazz is Dead JID022

Ebo Taylor, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad

In 2022 and at 86-years-old, Ebo Taylor performed in the US for the first time. Already a legend of highlife...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: April/2025

Saar

Estbel

This quartet could be said to be a kind of quintet, their phantom fifth member being the Baltic island of...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: March/2018

Ergo

Zhen Chen

Piano wunderkind Zhen Chen has an ambitious mission: to forge a new style of music that chimes with a generation...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: Jan/Feb/2018

Gharnata

Luis de la Carrasca

Gharnata takes its name from the Arabic for Granada, capital city of flamenco. Singer Luis de la Carrasca has long...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: November/2019