Reviews
The Sea is My Brother
The fourth studio album from Devon folk duo David Harbottle and Freya Jonas is a concept album about the sea....
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: May/2019
Eclairer le Monde (Light the World)
It starts with a furious flurry of percussion, and then in comes that voice, as commanding, passionate and distinctive as...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: May/2025
Ambush
Having first cut his teeth as a percussionist in Remmy Ongala's legendary Orchestre Super Matimila, Ambush is Saidi Kanda's first...
Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: Aug/Sept/2013
Benin: Bariba Music
The Bariba number about 600,000, and live in the north-west Nigerian region of Borgou, around the banks of the Niger...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: July/2013
Black Eagle
Based in New Zealand’s musically-vibrant capital Wellington, singer Iva Lamkum boasts a Samoan-Chinese bloodline, but it’s difficult to identify all...
Reviewed by Seth Jordan in issue: Jan/Feb/2013
Gwo Ka: Music of Guadeloupe, West Indies
Many listeners may have been drawn to the exuberant, complex percussion found in Guadaloupe by Kassav’, the long-lived Paris-based band...
Reviewed by Charles De Ledesma in issue: Jan/Feb/2015
From Senegal to the World: 80s Classics & Rarities
Youssou N’Dour began the 80s as the hub of a dynamic emerging music scene in Senegal and ended them being...
Reviewed by Mark Hudson in issue: Jan/Feb/2013
Elan
A confessed city boy, Gareth Bonello, aka The Gentle Good, wrote this album during a year-long residency in Wales’ Elan...
Reviewed by Elliw Iwan in issue: August/2025
Renascence
Given her status as the queen of the Mande griots, it comes as a shock to realise that this is...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
Magia Negra: The Beginning
For her latest offering, the octogenarian diva and former Buena Vista Social Club singer has revisited the first LP she...
Reviewed by Philip Sweeney in issue: Apr/May/2015
