Reviews
The Ripple Effect
A dozen years ago, the American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck took a journey across Africa to research the origins of...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: May/2020
Mongolia: Kazakh Songs and Epic Traditions of the West
Ethnomusicologist Alain Desjacques made most of these field recordings of Kazakh, Uriangkhai and Zakhchin Mongol musicians in 1984, though some...
Reviewed by Michael Ormiston in issue: Apr/May/2011
The Very Best of Osibisa
My introduction to African music came in 1972, when I saw Osibisa playing with Roxy Music at one of the...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Jan/Feb/2010
The Poacher's Fate
It's always refreshing to hear music that has nothing to hide behind. The London-based folk duo of Laura Smyth &...
Reviewed by Matt Milton in issue: Jan/Feb/2018
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
South India: Flowers and Ashes Hymns to Shiva
This is a disc of South Indian (Karnatic) singing in the temples of Tamil Nadu, the large state at the...
Reviewed by Jameela Siddiqi in issue: Apr/May/2010
