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Review of Midnight and Closedown

Midnight and Closedown

Lau

Top of the World

Reveal Records

Rating: ★★★★★

After a wait of nearly four years the British folk scene's bravest experimenters are back with their fifth studio album,...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: March/2019

Review of Divine

Divine

Oana Catalina Chitu

Asphalt Tango Records

Rating: ★★★

Maria Tanase is often referred to as ‘the Romanian Piaf’: both were distinctive vocalists who took a local vernacular music...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Aug/Sept/2013

Review of The Sound of Telemark

The Sound of Telemark

Sigmund Groven & Knut Buen

heilo

Rating: ★★★★

Drive three hours west of Oslo and nature beckons. There are farms, trees laden with red apples in late summer,...

Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: April/2021

Review of Sarawoga

Sarawoga

Oliver Mtukudzi

Sheer Sound

Rating: ★★★★

Dedicated to his son Sam, who died in a tragic car accident, the Zimbabwean veteran’s latest album opens with the...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2013

Review of Roudennoù / Traces

Roudennoù / Traces

Yann-Fañch Kemener

Buda Musique

Rating: ★★★★

Renowned as one of the most charismatic traditional singers of Brittany, the late Yann-Fañch Kemener released a double album embracing...

Reviewed by Pierre Cuny in issue: June/2019

Review of La Llorona

La Llorona

Chavela Vargas

Milan

Rating: ★★

While she could play the tragic heroine with a bleeding heart with the best of them, Chavela Vargas was also...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: April/2018

Review of Dos Gigantes de la Música Cubana

Dos Gigantes de la Música Cubana

Eliades Ochoa & Alejandro Almenares

Tumi Records

Rating: ★★★★

The ringing guitar and tres duets between Eliades Ochoa and Compay Segundo, first heard on 1986's Chanchaneando, went on to...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: November/2018

Review of Udondolo

Udondolo

Urban Village

Top of the World

Nø Førmat!

Rating: ★★★★

It is unsurprising that black South African music in recent years has lacked the game-changing potency it enjoyed when soundtracking...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2021

Review of Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Music from the Penguin Cafe

Editions Penguin Cafe EPC023

Rating: ★★★★

Between 1972 and 1997, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra cut a unique and much¬loved swathe through that musical realm where folk,...

Reviewed by Tim Camming in issue: October/2010

Review of Charlie Gillett's Radio Picks: Honky Tonk Vol 2

Charlie Gillett's Radio Picks: Honky Tonk Vol 2

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Ace Records

Rating: ★★★

Long before Charlie Gillett became a world music DJ (and guru) he was something of a seer for what's now...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: March/2015

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