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Review of The Burial of Kojo

The Burial of Kojo

Blitz the Ambassador

Direct Current MGMT

Rating: ★★★★

Blitz the Ambassador is a Ghanaian American visual artist, MC and bandleader with a clutch of interesting, forward-looking albums under...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: July/2019

Review of While You Were Slumbering

While You Were Slumbering

Joseph Decosimo

Top of the World

Sleepy Cat Records

Rating: ★★★★

Expert fiddler and banjoist and scholar of southern Appalachian music, Tennessee native Joseph Decosimo bears the legacy of the Cumberland...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: January/February/2023

Review of A Breath Against the Calm

A Breath Against the Calm

Root & Branch

Root & Branch

Rating: ★★★

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

Review of Expansions

Expansions

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band

Big Crown Records

Rating: ★★★★

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band are a German steel pan band that have earned a reputation for giving a Trinidad...

Reviewed by Dan Hobson in issue: October/2021

Review of Chai Party

Chai Party

Alya Marquardt & The Shamash Ensemble

Two Rivers Records

Rating: ★★★★

The first thing that grabs you on this album is the voice. Haunting and full of subtle modulation with an...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: October/2015

Review of Newcomer

Newcomer

Gráinne Brady

Cailin Records

Rating: ★★★

As a young Gráinne Brady was learning the fiddle from her dad in County Cavan, she was also enraptured by...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: June/2021

Review of Polka V

Polka V

Frigg

Top of the World

Frigg Ltd

Rating: ★★★★★

This is a five-star album. Now get out there, put your dancing shoes on and spend hour after hour with...

Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: March/2013

Review of Adghah

Adghah

Bibi Ahmed

Sounds of Subterrania

Rating: ★★★★

Touareg guitar music takes many forms; there is the incandescent psychedelia of Bombino and Mdou Moctar, the nimble blues-rock of...

Reviewed by Asher Breuer-Weil in issue: November/2019

Review of Calypso/Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean

Calypso/Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean

Harry Belafonte

Jackpot

Rating: ★★★★★

‘Day-o! Day-ay-ay-o! Daylight come and me wan’ go home.’ Everyone knows Belafonte's ‘Banana Boat Song’. For several decades following its...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: October/2014

Review of Nine Pin

Nine Pin

Kaia Kater

Top of the World

Mavens Music

Rating: ★★★★

Born to Afro-Caribbean parents in Québec and having lived and studied banjo in West Virginia's Appalachian mountains marks Kaia Kater...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: December/2016

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