Reviews Search | Songlines

Reviews

Review of Our Garden Is Alone

Our Garden Is Alone

Marjan Vahdat

Top of the World

Kirkelig Kulturverksted

Rating: ★★★★

Opener ‘Leyli’s Garden’, heralded by a breathy flourish on the ney, is a personal and heartfelt homage to Vahdat’s late...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: October/2022

Review of Cabaret of Death

Cabaret of Death

Kroke

Oriente Musik

Rating: ★★★

Unfortunately I haven’t yet seen the Polish drama documentary Cabaret of Death, which won a Prix Italia last year. Directed...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: March/2016

Review of Temperamento: Traditional Songs from Spain

Temperamento: Traditional Songs from Spain

Vigüela

ARC Music

Rating: ★★★★

Vigüela is a Toledo-based outfit of singers, guitarists and players of castanets, tambourines, shearing scissors, cowbells, sieves, the lute-like bandurria,...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: Aug/Sep/2016

Review of Lady Sings the Balkan Blues

Lady Sings the Balkan Blues

Mostar Sevdah Reunion

Top of the World

Snail Records

Rating: ★★★★

Mostar Sevdah Reunion are a Bosnian institution. Emerging out of the ruins of war-torn Bosnia in 1998, tending the traditions...

Reviewed by Robert Rigney in issue: March/2023

Review of Türlü

Türlü

Haci Tekbilek

Country & Eastern CE15

Rating: ★★★

Haci Tekbilek is a gruff vocalist and a fine performer on several Turkish instruments, including saz, sax, bendir drum and,...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: October/2010

Review of Pressure to Pleasure

Pressure to Pleasure

Femi & the InRhythms

Joyful Noise

Rating: ★★★

Recorded live in studios in Lagos and London by a sprawling Afrobeat band led by bassist and vocalist Femi Sofela,...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2018

Review of Magic Nights

Magic Nights

Christ Moore

Columbia

Rating: ★★★★

Fifty years after his debut LP, Christ Moore's latest solo offering sees the Irish icon trawling though his live back...

Reviewed by Michael Quinn in issue: March/2020

Review of The Kankobela of the Batonga Vol 1

The Kankobela of the Batonga Vol 1

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Sharp Wood Productions SWP036

Rating: ★★★★★

Once fishermen and farmers on the rich alluvial banks of the Zambezi, the Batonga were driven at gun¬point from their...

Reviewed by Tom Bullough in issue: March/2010

Review of Independence Ska and the Far East Sound

Independence Ska and the Far East Sound

Skatalites

Soul Jazz Records

Rating: ★★★★★

The Skatalites' brief original existence from 1963 to 1965 surely marks them out as one of the most influential bands...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: October/2017

Review of Ritka Magyar Vol 1

Ritka Magyar Vol 1

Téka

Fonó

Rating: ★★★★

The folk music revival in Hungary, and the dance house scene that was its driving force, are now nigh-on half...

Reviewed by Kim Burton in issue: Aug/Sep/2016

Subscribe from only £7.50

Start your journey and discover the very best music from around the world.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Songlines magazine.

Find out more