Reviews
The Pure and the Golden
The entire world knows and loves South Africa's premier Zulu ensemble. Joseph Shabalala's group has such a vast repertoire, recorded...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Apr/May/2012
Shango
Towards the end of the 90s, a penchant for turning up new club-friendly tunes encouraged a slew of record aficionados...
Reviewed by Chris Menist in issue: June/2013
Marinai, Profeti e Balene
This idiosyncratic Italian songwriter has often been compared to Tom Waits and Paolo Conte but vocally, and also in regard...
Reviewed by Howard Male in issue: July/2012
Nhaoul’
For 20 years, from 1980, Kamilya Jubran was the voice of Sabreen, a Palestinian group known for their songs of...
Reviewed by Peter Culshaw in issue: June/2013
Rendez-vous Barbès
The opening number, ‘Sidi Yahia-bnef Paris’, effortlessly mixes elements of Gnawa trance with a low-slung growling rock riff that The...
Reviewed by Howard Male in issue: October/2010
Eureka!
Barcelona has long been a hotbed of musical experimentation, producing an almost ridiculously long list of top artists from rumba...
Reviewed by Ed Stocker in issue: Aug/Sept/2013
The Crowing
A striking album of fresh explorations into the more obscure corners and bridleways of English music and folklore, The Crowing...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: July/2018
Braziliance!
‘First came Gilberto, then Jobim, and now MARCOS VALLE BRAZILIANCE!’ runs the breathless blurb on the original sleeve of this...
Reviewed by Brendon Griffin in issue: April/2020
A Jamaican In Cairo
There are those who will tell you that we are witnessing the sonic equivalent of Francis Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Apr/May/2011
