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Review of BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2016

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2016

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Proper Music 2 CDs

Rating: ★★★★

This year sees the 17th BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. They grow ever more prestigious and this year, the Royal...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: June/2016

Review of Bahir

Bahir

Dexter Story

Soundway

Rating: ★★★★

Where the rhythms and grooves of West Africa have been embraced across the planet, absorbed into the mainstream and melded...

Reviewed by Tim Romain in issue: May/2019

Review of Banjovial

Banjovial

Damien O’Kane & Ron Block

Pure Records

Rating: ★★★★

After Banjophony and Banjophonics comes the latest album from Damien O’Kane and Ron Block, Banjovial. If you’re paying attention, you’ll...

Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: January/2026

Review of As It Comes

As It Comes

Thalas

Trad Records

Rating: ★★★★

Belgian composer and multi-instrumentalist Ward Dhoore has made fairly regular appearances in these pages as a member of such forward-thinking...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: December/2025

Review of Super Nova Samba Funk

Super Nova Samba Funk

Banda Black Rio

Far Out

Rating: ★★★

Over a decade that’s seen all kinds of obscure and often fantastic Brazilian funk prised from the archives, the band...

Reviewed by Brendon Griffin in issue: Aug/Sep/2011

Review of Local Stranger

Local Stranger

Alkinoos Ioannidis

Wrasse Records

Rating: ★★★

Classically trained Alkinoos Ioannidis has been recording and performing world-wide since 1993. One of the younger generation of guitar-playing Greek...

Reviewed by Marc Dubin in issue: July/2012

Review of La Guinéenne

La Guinéenne

Mory Kanté

Discograph

Rating: ★★★★

Youssou N’Dour might be still defined by ‘Seven Seconds’, his 1994 smash hit with Neneh Cherry, had he not gone...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: October/2012

Review of Cumbia Beat Vol 1

Cumbia Beat Vol 1

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Vampisoul VAMPICD116

Rating: ★★★★

Peru had a sizzling, cosmopolitan music scene in the 1960s and 70s, when shifting nationalist politics, coupled with huge rural...

Reviewed by Jan Fairley in issue: October/2010

Review of Wayward Daughter

Wayward Daughter

Eliza Carthy

Topic Records (2 CDs,)

Rating: ★★★★★

‘Grey Gallito’ is a work of steamy jazz that sounds as if it was recorded in Havana. It is also...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: June/2013

Review of BanningsviNe

BanningsviNe

Flammé Kapaya

Buda Music

Rating: ★★★★

Flammé Kapaya will be a new name to many. But he spent a decade backing the Congolese singer Werrason in...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2013

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