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Review of Maison Maquis

Maison Maquis

Sages Comme des Sauvages

Capitane Records

Rating: ★★★★

This third album by one of France’s leading avant-pop bands is as whacky and genre-defying as the name the two...

Reviewed by Daniel Brown in issue: September/2024

Review of Earthcycle

Earthcycle

Orchestra of the Swan

Signum Classics

Rating: ★★★★

This third ‘mixtape album’ from Orchestra of the Swan continues the classical ensemble’s adventures into bending and breaking genre boundaries....

Reviewed by Michael Quinn in issue: April/2024

Review of Chronika

Chronika

Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars

Borscht Beat

Rating: ★★★

After nearly 15 years playing trumpet in America’s seminal klezmer band The Klezmatics (with whom he is still active), Frank...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: May/2024

Review of Avenida Paulista, da Consolação ao Paraíso

Avenida Paulista, da Consolação ao Paraíso

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Selo Risco

Rating: ★★★★

The Avenida Paulista is the beating heart of São Paulo. Nowhere is the wide disparities in Brazilian society more apparent...

Reviewed by Andy Cumming in issue: August/2025

Review of Les Percussions de Guinée Vols 1 & 2

Les Percussions de Guinée Vols 1 & 2

Les Percussions de Guinée

Buda Musique

Rating: ★★★★

A welcome reissue of the two classics from Guinea's national supergroup, this was assembled to promote Guinean culture on the...

Reviewed by Barak Schmool in issue: March/2013

Review of Habibi Funk 015: An Eclectic Selection of Music from the Arab World, Part 2

Habibi Funk 015: An Eclectic Selection of Music from the Arab World, Part 2

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Habibi Funk Records

Rating: ★★★★

As the comprehensive and beautifully produced sleeve notes make clear, this compilation of 13 jaw-droppingly funky tracks from the Middle...

Reviewed by Russell Higham in issue: Aug/Sep/2021

Review of Salsa Salsa

Salsa Salsa

Tito Puente & his Orchestra

In The Woods INWOOD001

Rating: ★★★

‘El Rey del Timbai died in 2000 at the age of 77. Like most kings, Tito Puente left behind a...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: Aug/Sep/2010

Review of Last

Last

The Unthanks

RabbleRouser Music/EMI

Rating: ★★★

Last begins with ‘Gan to the Kye’, a Northumbrian complaint about the local men taken by rebels, leaving only the...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: Apr/May/2011

Review of Night Nurse: The Best Of

Night Nurse: The Best Of

Gregory Isaacs

Trojan/Spectrum

Rating: ★★★★

Gregory Isaacs, who died at the age of 59 in October last year, was one of the most popular and...

Reviewed by Neil Foxlee in issue: June/2011

Review of Sonando Ya

Sonando Ya

Sierra Maestra

World Village WVUK450011

Rating: ★★★

The Sierra Maestra, the mountainous region where the leading lights of the 1959 Cuban revolution hid out, is intimately associated...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: March/2010

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