Reviews
Jumbie in the Jukebox
‘I would choose to live back when calypso brought the news’, sings Drew Gonsalves in the opening seconds of Jumbie...
Reviewed by Clyde Macfarlane in issue: June/2013
Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song
Trump's America ought to be a fertile breeding ground for modern protest songs, but if they're out there, we don't...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: November/2019
Stop the Hate
Femi Kuti's last album, 2018's One People One World, was disappointing; it lacked the bite of earlier recordings and sounded...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2021
Child of Independence
Opening track ‘Yebo’ sets the pace: bursting with warmth, vibrant and upbeat, it proves Thab ani N yo ni is...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: Jan/Feb/2011
Andy Cutting
Andy Cutting is a great musician, known best for his work with other people. His melodeon (squeezebox) playing was crucial...
Reviewed by Julian May in issue: Aug/Sep/2010
Africa Soyo
London-based Gnawa master Simo Lagnawi returns with his latest album, Africa Soyo, a clean, crisp recording – something that's very...
Reviewed by Yousif Nur in issue: April/2020
Balabeatz
It’s the fourth album in almost ten years for this band created in Toulouse when balafon virtuoso Seydou Diabaté and...
Reviewed by Jean Berry in issue: July/2025
There Is Beauty, There Already
Drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar’s seventh album is a singular experiment in slow listening and percussive potential. It emerges alongside...
Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: December/2025
Rivers from Ogun
The French-Swiss quartet of organist Cédric Schaerer, drummer Hadrien Santos Da Silva, tenor sax player Arthur Donnot and guitarist Erwan...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: April/2022
Guitar Maestro
Known as much for his books on guitar playing as his virtuosity, Spanish maestro Juan Martín possesses quite a lineage....
Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: July/2019
