Reviews
Parlour Ballads
Parlour ballads, as a genre, get poor press as low-grade, middle-class Victoriana, but here’s Jon Boden at the piano (and...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: December/2024
Luoteniegut
Joik vocalist Ulla Pirttijärvi is among northern Finland’s strongest Indigenous voices. Pirttijärvi combines her powerful singing with West African influences...
Reviewed by Wif Stenger in issue: June/2025
Le QuecumBar Live in London
Patrick Saussois & Daniel John Martin
LeQuecumBar is the south-west London pub devoted to Gypsy jazz à la Django Reinhardt and his followers. Offering both major...
Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: June/2010
Handmade
Supplying the music for a big-budget TV ad campaign might provoke eat-ealls from the anti-corporate quarter, but the cash does...
Reviewed by Nige Tassell in issue: July/2010
Try and Love
Imagine Lagos, Nigeria in 1972, when Fela Kuti was flying high with recordings like ‘Shakara’ and ‘Roforofo Fight’, jùjú music...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: June/2023
Our Garden Needs its Flowers
A very welcome reissue of an oddity from the Ivory Coast that was a huge regional hit when issued in...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: October/2018
Loud and Clear
Active for 20 years, Otava Yo are probably the most successful Russian band on the world music scene with their...
Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: September/2024
Imam Baildi
This is a great album, with a great idea behind it: take recordings of Greek popular songs of the 40s...
Reviewed by Maria Lord in issue: July/2010
Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia
One of the oddities of Brazilian music is the lack of strong, assertive male vocals: the kind of voices that...
Reviewed by Russ Slater in issue: Nov/Dec/2012
Wild Tune Stray Rhythm
Song Yuzhe comes from north-east China and he is the composer of this dynamic set of songs and instrumentals. On...
Reviewed by Michael Ormiston in issue: July/2013
