Reviews
Ayobaness! The Sound of South African House
‘This is the new Africa,’ declares the liner notes. But it isn't really. House music has been thudding out of...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: July/2010
The Sounds of India; Improvisations; Three Ragas
This double album features three older releases by Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitar maestro who died in 2012. He took...
Reviewed by Jameela Siddiqi in issue: July/2015
The Warrior Women of Afro-Peruvian Music
Working this time in Lima, Peru, this album from the Just Play project – accompanied by a webisode for each...
Reviewed by Lucy Hallam in issue: November/2019
The Rough Guide to English Folk
This is, in a sense, not one but two Rough Guides. The first is a selection of 17 tracks compiled...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: October/2011
The Hind Wheels of Bad Luck
In an era in which female folk voices are either breathy and virginal or histrionic and attention-seeking, Cath Tyler’s voice...
Reviewed by Matthew Milton in issue: Apr/May/2010
Kigali Y’Izahabu
The most exciting thing about Kigali Y'Izahabu is that it is potentially going to reach an audience who might not...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Jan/Feb/2011
Pioneering Women of Bluegrass: The Definitive Edition
In 1965, Who's That Knocking? by Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard demolished forever a de facto gender barrier within the...
Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: December/2022
The Rough Guide to South African Jazz
The title might suggest another nostalgic ‘golden era’ compilation of township jive, kwela and marabi, built around the old favourites...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2016
The Rough Guide to Blues Divas
The stereotypical image of the early blues pioneers as black itinerant males playing bottleneck guitar on the plantations of the...
Reviewed by Nigel Luilliamson in issue: April/2020
Iran: The Masters of Music, Vol 1
In the 19th century, the once orally transmitted modal tradition of Persian classical music was canonised into a repertoire known...
Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: May/2021
