Reviews

Clear Skies

Réalta

For the follow-up to their largely mellow and laidback 2012 debut, Open the Door for Three, Belfast trio Réalta have...

Reviewed by Michael Quinn in issue: Aug/Sep/2016

RDS-202

KermesZ à l'Est

KermesZ à l'Est are not only the wildest Balkan band in Belgium, but probably on the planet. I first encountered...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: July/2020

The Deepest Breath

Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin

2020’s Solas an Lae saw Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin striking away from his Skipper’s Alley roots in the company of Ultan...

Reviewed by Michael Quinn in issue: January/February/2023

Pondelorum

Eoin Dillon

Long celebrated as the founder of Irish traditional group Kíla, Eoin Dillon's lyrical uilleann pipe and whistle playing provides the...

Reviewed by Rachel Cunniffe in issue: March/2017

Nouvelle Calédonie: Voix des Rivages et des Montagnes

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Music from New Caledonia – a little-known French colony in Melanesia, midway between Fiji and Australia – is, well, little...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: July/2010

VisaFree

RotFront

A Ukrainian, two Hungarians, an Australian and five Germans walk into a recording studio, and… well, I wish I could...

Reviewed by Howard Male in issue: Aug/Sep/2011

Semitics

47SOUL

It’s been said 47SOUL are a band rooted in the Palestinian diaspora. Surely ‘uprooted’ would be more to the point....

Reviewed by Robert Rigney in issue: October/2020

Babani Koné

Babani Koné

I'm always wary when I read that an artist wants to ‘broaden their audience’ and make an ‘international’ album –...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: March/2020

Aim

MIA

Mathangi Arulpragasam – better known as the artist MIA, whose songs for the film Slumdog Millionaire earned her Oscar and...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: December/2016

Up and Away

∑tella

While unapologetically poppy at heart, there’s a redeeming musical depth and (there’s no other word for it but) ‘soul’ to...

Reviewed by Russell Higham in issue: August/September/2022