Reviews
Djourou
For this, his 11th album, the Paris-based kora maestro Ballaké Sissoko collaborated with a clutch of genre-diverse French and African...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: May/2021
African Pearls: Senegal – Echo Musical
This collection of largely unknown tracks from Senegambia in the 1970s offers some unexpected musical treats, showcasing as it does...
Reviewed by Jenny Cathcart in issue: Aug/Sep/2010
The Rip Tide
Unlike previous Beirut albums, there's precious little evidence of Zach Condon's cosmopolitan taste in music here. Gone are the mariachi...
Reviewed by Matthew Milton in issue: Nov/Dec/2011
Rose in June
Boden's presence on the 21st-century British folk scene has been colossal – from his stint in Eliza Carthy's Ratcatchers band...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: April/2020
Les Nomades du Niger: Fulanis, Bororos & Touaregs
Here's a quaint item. In the mid-70s the ethnomusicologist François Jouffa compiled some recordings made in Niger by a certain...
Reviewed by Andy Morgan in issue: Nov/Dec/2010
Music of Central Asia Vol Eight: Rainbow
Kronos Quartet with Alim & Fargana Qasimov & Homayun Sakhi
This clearly shows the Music of Central Asia discs moving in a different direction – away from purely traditional music...
Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: June/2010
Off Beaten Tracks
There’s a palpable electricity to an Urban Folk Quartet gig. It surges through the musicians and into the crowd when...
Reviewed by Olivia Haughton in issue: July/2012
Encantações
Brazilian music has shown for some time a spectacular porousness and a seeming ease in introducing traditional forms to modern...
Reviewed by GonÇalo Frota in issue: March/2017
Roots of Ska: USA Jamaica 1942-62
In his book Bass Culture, the writer Lloyd Bradley vividly evokes the era before ska and rocksteady eras in 50s...
Reviewed by Charles De Ledesma in issue: Jan/Feb/2014
Contreband Mentality
Les Frères are a 14-strong Paris-based Afro-beat collective who, for some bizarre reason, all take the same surname in the...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2012
