Reviews
Essentials
We often associate Iranian music with long, melancholy pieces. But Persian culture is rich in folkloric music as well, rooted...
Reviewed by Neil van der Linden in issue: December/2023
L’Bnat
Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou
The second album by Gnawa maalma Asmâa Hamzaoui and her all-female group Daughters of Timbuktu is a bass-lute thudding, qaraqab-clattering,...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: June/2024
Maghreb Lyon
The role of Paris and Marseille in the production of North African music in France is well documented: less so...
Reviewed by Philip Sweeney in issue: October/2014
Traveller
Anoushka Shankar's debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, best known for its heavyweight Western classical music, shows a terrific assurance which...
Reviewed by Peter Culshaw in issue: Nov/Dec/2011
Cirque Insomnia
There is plenty about the Bristol-based band Sheelanagig that is rooted in Southern and Eastern European musical traditions. This album...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Aug/Sep/2012
Bled Memory
I often wish reviewers would appraise albums on the basis of what they actually are rather than what they want...
Reviewed by Andy Morgan in issue: June/2010
Rangarang: Pre– Revolutionary Iranian Pop
Travelling amongst Balkan musicians I would often ask what their influences were. More often than not, at the top of...
Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Apr/May/2012
