Reviews
Athamra
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish
This musical tour of the Mediterranean works on a number of levels. Firstly, and most importantly, it works musically. Knitting...
Reviewed by Maria Lord in issue: October/2015
Big Machine
Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band
Bold, brassy and bendy, Eliza Carthy's Big Machine is a monster of an album, and she has a monster of...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: March/2017
Ragtime! Hokum! Western Swing!
The Holcombe Family String Band
Cued by the ‘hokum’ present both in the album title and, homophonically, in the name of the band, this reviewer...
Reviewed by Jeff Kaliss in issue: April/2016
Jaiyede Afro
Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics
Orlando Julius should be much more famous outside his native Nigeria. One of the pioneers of Afrobeat, this is the...
Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: October/2014
Dama Bëgga Ñibi (I Want to Go Home)
In the spring of 2020, Bakane Seck, the Senegalese percussionist and founder of Dakar’s Jeri Jeri Band, found himself stranded...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2024
Eternal Love
Simdi Ensemble & Michel Godard
This unusual album explores the tuneful Turkish Sufi song tradition with the aid of Michel Godard on tuba and serpent....
Reviewed by Martin Stokes in issue: June/2016
Entity
This album is from Belgium, a nation seemingly adept at encouraging musical collaborations between different communities – Voxtra's The Encounter...
Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: December/2017
Virgin Islands: Quelbe & Calypso 1956-60
Following Caribbean classics compilations from Jamaica, Bermuda and Trinidad, one on the Virgin Islands musical history could present an intriguing...
Reviewed by Charles De Ledesma in issue: Nov/Dec/2013
Discover Music From Brazil
There's plenty of music on this 18-track compilation, but surely only the entirely uninitiated could regard much of it as...
Reviewed by Brendon Griffin in issue: October/2016
Allt
Julie Fowlis, Éamon Doorley, Zoë Conway & John Mc Intyre
This feels like something of a Gaelic supergroup album. It brings together two power couples – Hebridean singer and whistles...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Jan/Feb/2019
