Reviews
Balafon Evolution
Hailing from Côte d’Ivoire but now based in Berlin, we first came across the balafon player Aly Keïta as part...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: April/2026
Late Night Tales Presents Version Excursion Selected by Don Letts
The filmmaker and broadcaster Don Letts first found fame as the ‘Rebel Dread’ DJ who introduced punks to reggae at...
Reviewed by David Katz in issue: December/2021
Bes
Formed in 2012, the trio who make up the Dwarfs found themselves living in the same apartment building in Cairo's...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2016
Éthiopiques 29: Mastawesha
Daniel Techane | Kassa Tessema
These two latest releases from Buda are in some respects polar opposites, though connected by a common theme. One is...
Reviewed by Chris Menist in issue: October/2014
Microfolk 1-3
Chaz Knapp, Cy Werner & Chaz Prymek
The deeply impressionistic, pointillist improvisations spread across these three wonderful collaborative cassette releases are like subtle adornments to the natural...
Reviewed by Spencer Grady in issue: December/2023
Djamila
Here's a second album from Mamadou Kelly, a guitarist and singer from the Malian area of Goundam and Niafunke –...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: November/2015
ID
The album cover says it all: a picture of the globe, the various continents composed of heads of human beings...
Reviewed by Robert Rigney in issue: November/2021
Rebelión Tropical: The Very Best of Fruko & Joe Arroyo
These tremendous songs from the Colombian legends – bass player, percussionist, producer and song-writer, Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincon (aka Fruko)...
Reviewed by Sue Steward in issue: June/2011
A Breath Against the Calm
Root & Branch are a quintet playing music from the UK, Ireland and the Appalachians on mandolin, fiddles, bouzouki, banjo,...
Reviewed by Julian May in issue: March/2019
