Reviews
Who is William Onyeabor?
The title of this album is highly appropriate as nobody – the record label included – seems to be able...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: Jan/Feb/2014
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Biyo (Water is Love)
Pop-culture history is littered with actors chancing their arm at cutting records, from Robert Mitchum’s dalliances with calypso through to...
Reviewed by Nige Tassell in issue: July/2010
Raï is not Dead
Fanfaraï Big Band have been known as just Fanfaraï since their inception in 2005, but have now renamed owing to...
Reviewed by Marwan Shamiyeh in issue: July/2018
Hanoi Masters: War is a Wound, Peace is a Scar
The intrepid producer and field recordist Ian Brennan has worked with both Tinariwen and Malawi Mouse Boys. He recently recorded...
Reviewed by Matt Milton in issue: July/2015
All is Forgiven
Lilli Lewis has been labelled a ‘folk rock diva’, but that only describes part of her style. Based in New...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: April/2024
What Love Is
Katie Spencer’s third album proves that she is a fine singer-songwriter, and an excellent guitarist with a style that at...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: October/2025
There is No End
When this reviewer interviewed Allen for Songlines in 2020 just before lockdown, we talked mostly about Rejoice, his collaborative album...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: July/2021
All Life is Here
Harp and a Monkey, as the abrupt band name suggests, are a plain-speaking Lancastrian folk group. Frontman Martin Purdy tells...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: June/2014
The Sky is Cloudy
The group's name doesn't give much away, but the plaintive melody on the duduk that opens this album makes its...
Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: November/2019
Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings From the 1970s and 1980s
After presumably running out of crates to dig through in West Africa for Soundway's splendid series of 70s archive recordings...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Aug/Sept/2013
