Reviews

Ndebele Songs

Insingizi

Many music lovers will be familiar with the isicathamiya style of singing, thanks to southern African groups such as Ladysmith...

Reviewed by Brian Chikwava in issue: Jan/Feb/2012

tender

Lady Maisery

Lady Maisery’s new album is a musical and lyrical exploration of the ambiguities of its one word title, tender. Hazel...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: January/February/2023

Vindodo

Tonga Boys

The first thing you'll notice about this album is its packaging – no jewel case here! Instead, the CD comes...

Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: May/2019

Hand to Play

Olav Mjelva & Eli West

The Seattle-based guitarist and singer Eli West is well-known for his old-time Americana duo with fellow singer Cahalen Morrison. West's...

Reviewed by Matt Milton in issue: July/2019

Madjafalao

Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou

One of the great West African big bands of the 1970s, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo were Benin’s answer to Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab,...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Jan/Feb/2017

Break It Up

Rura

Rura are one of the most promising and interesting young bands to emerge recently and this, their debut album, establishes...

Reviewed by Billy Rough in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Ocupai

Bixiga 70

In 2011, Afrobeat chronicler Dr Carlos Moore predicted that Brazil would be ‘the next Afrobeat world capital.’ Exaggerated though it...

Reviewed by Alex Robinson in issue: Aug/Sep/2014

Vagabonde

Mar Seek

Hasn’t the world now heard every possible permutation of the nexus of bands that revolutionised Senegalese music in the 1970s,...

Reviewed by Mark Hudson in issue: March/2014

Alcance

Nikos Tsiachris

As flamenco continues to expand its appeal across the globe, one familiar disappointment is to hear foreign guitarists who have...

Reviewed by Jo Setters in issue: August/2017

Nádúr

Clannad

Nádúr delivers the first new material from Clannad in a decade and a half and arrives as the Irish icons...

Reviewed by Michael Quinn in issue: Jan/Feb/2014