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BBB (Balkan Beat Box)

Top of the World

Crammed Discs

Rating: ★★★★

The New York-based trio are at it again. But this time things are different – the band have grown up...

Reviewed by Alexandra Petropoulos in issue: Apr/May/2012

Review of Secretly Famous

Secretly Famous

The Spy From Cairo

Wonderwheel Recordings wonderCD08

Rating: ★★★

This is a Western¬er’s image of Cairo and its mythical fleshpots: snake-charmer music for young Euro-clubbers en route to the...

Reviewed by Alastair Johnston in issue: July/2010

Review of Lo Mau d'Amor

Lo Mau d'Amor

Trobairitz d'Oc

Felmay

Rating: ★★★★

Singers Paola Lombardo and Valeria Benigni are vocalists with distinctively different qualities: the former retaining her jazz upbringing, the latter...

Reviewed by Ciro De Rosa in issue: June/2011

Review of Picnic

Picnic

The Hut People

Fellside

Rating: ★★★

Otherwise known as accordionist Sam Pirt andpercussionist Gary Hammond, The Hut People bring to their second full-length album much of...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: July/2012

Review of The Best of Soapkills

The Best of Soapkills

Soapkills

Crammed Discs

Rating: ★★★

In 2009 I spent a week in Beirut lecturing on music journalism and asked each of my students to bring...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Aug/Sep/2015

Review of The Art of the Shakuhachi

The Art of the Shakuhachi

Katsuya Yokoyama

Ocora Radio France

Rating: ★★★★

Katsuya Yokoyama, one of the last great masters of Japanese traditional music, brings us an exemplary recording of 17th-century shakuhachi...

Reviewed by Darran Smith in issue: July/2017

Review of The Voice of Lightness Vol 2: Congo Classics 1977-1993

The Voice of Lightness Vol 2: Congo Classics 1977-1993

Tabu Ley Rochereau

Stern’s Music

Rating: ★★★★

The second two-disc volume of the definitive career overview of Tabu Ley Rochereau picks up the Congo’s greatest vocalist at...

Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: March/2011

Review of Man with a Love Song

Man with a Love Song

James Hill

Borealis Records

Rating: ★★★★

Sophisticated and playful, the songs and tunes on this new album from Canadian ukulele sensation James Hill sound at times...

Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Jan/Feb/2012

Review of Quiet Forest, Flowing Stream

Quiet Forest, Flowing Stream

Gao Hong

Innova

Rating: ★★★

That the pipa player Gao Hong has long lived in the US is evident in this collection, which reveals a...

Reviewed by Joanna Lee in issue: Jan/Feb/2011

Review of Oliveiras

Oliveiras

Magda Mendes

Casa da Bôxa

Rating: ★★★

One should always try to forget any preconceptions when approaching a fado singer from abroad, with no real reputation or...

Reviewed by GonÇalo Frota in issue: April/2018

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