Reviews
High Words
My first inclination was to award this album a single star. These songs are annoyingly catchy, and they're annoyingly unfunny,...
Reviewed by Martin Longley in issue: July/2017
Allt
Julie Fowlis, Éamon Doorley, Zoë Conway & John Mc Intyre
This feels like something of a Gaelic supergroup album. It brings together two power couples – Hebridean singer and whistles...
Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Jan/Feb/2019
Swaziland: Songs of the Swazi
Despite the 82–year reign of Sobhuza II – the “hip king’’ eulogised by South African jazzer Abdullah Ibrahim – Swaziland...
Reviewed by Tom Bullough in issue: Jan/Feb/2010
Grandad's Favorite
Instantly likeable, this album gets off to a cracking start with a raucous rendition of the classic ‘Jawbone’. Grandad's Favorite...
Reviewed by Tom Newell in issue: Jan/Feb/2015
Bulimundo/Djam Brancu Dja
Most readers will associate Cape Verde with the languid, melancholic mornas made famous by the great singer Cesaria Evora, or...
Reviewed by Alex Robinson in issue: Jan/Feb/2014
The Black Orchid String Band
The tragedy of West Papua and its peoples’ hopes for eventual independence is an ongoing daily struggle for the native...
Reviewed by Seth Jordan in issue: March/2018
Till Skogen
Climate change, pandemics, wars… there’s an urgent need to raise people’s spirits, so the joy and optimism of Kolonien’s Till...
Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: June/2022
Quiet Revolutions
Quiet Revolutions is album number two from the UK-based Zambian singer-songwriter Namvula, following 2014's Shiwezwa. She demonstrates a strong voice...
Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Jan/Feb/2018
Entoto Band
Entoto Band are a Netherlands-based group directed by guitarist Joep Pelt and fronted by Ethiopian singer Helen Mengestu and Eritrean...
Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: June/2023
A Message from Mozambique
Fifty years ago, change was brewing. The outrage piqued by US-backed war and civil war in Africa, by racism, injustice...
Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: June/2023
