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Review of Expansions

Expansions

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band

Big Crown Records

Rating: ★★★★

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band are a German steel pan band that have earned a reputation for giving a Trinidad...

Reviewed by Dan Hobson in issue: October/2021

Review of Chai Party

Chai Party

Alya Marquardt & The Shamash Ensemble

Two Rivers Records

Rating: ★★★★

The first thing that grabs you on this album is the voice. Haunting and full of subtle modulation with an...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: October/2015

Review of Open on Sundays

Open on Sundays

Duck Soup

Hebe Music

Rating: ★★★

You'll get it cheaper at Duck Soup’s Gramophone and Cycle Stores, 18 Station Road, West Croydon.’ So proclaims the sign...

Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Apr/May/2011

Review of Vamp

Vamp

Fitkin

GFR

Rating: ★★★

Source music and minimalist systems music are the scaffold on which contemporary composer Graham Fitkin erects the dense, multi-part instrumental...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: April/2017

Review of Sounds of Refuge

Sounds of Refuge

John Falsetto & Mohamed Sarrar

John Falsetto & Mohamed Sarrar

Rating: ★★★

John Falsetto and Mohamed Sarrar met as fellow actors in award-winning play The Jungle, which tells the stories of residents...

Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: Jan/Feb/2019

Review of Consonnances

Consonnances

Tri Nguyen & The Ilios Quartet

Lunelios

Rating: ★★★

In zither master Tri Nguyen, Vietnam has a fine ambassador for its traditional music. This recording has a clearly defined...

Reviewed by Tim Woodall in issue: June/2015

Review of Soft Power

Soft Power

AJ Holmes & The Hackney Empire

Singing Dune Records

Rating: ★

AJ Holmes grew up in East London and has lived in Hackney for the past 15 years. It's an ethnically...

Reviewed by Alex De Lacey in issue: Aug/Sep/2015

Review of Máscaras

Máscaras

Mas Aya

Telephone Explosion

Rating: ★★

Mas Aya, aka Brandon Valdivia, is a Toronto-based Canadian-Nicaraguan producer and multi-instrumentalist known in that city for his work with...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: December/2021

Review of Baladi Blues 2

Baladi Blues 2

Guy Schalom

Ethnomusic Records

Rating: ★★★★

Guy Schalom is one of the UK's leading percussionists in klezmer and Arabic music, having played with the Klezmatics, Natacha...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: October/2011

Review of Sketches of Ethiopia

Sketches of Ethiopia

Mulatu Astatke

Top of the World

Jazz Village

Rating: ★★★★

What’s in a name? Well, the album’s two longest tracks, ‘Assosa Derache’ and ‘Motherland Abay’, both composed, arranged and produced...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: Nov/Dec/2013

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