Reviews

Hourglass

Antibalas

Second-wave Afrobeat pioneers Antibalas return with Hourglass, a vibrant, fully instrumental offering that sees the Brooklyn collective reconnect with their...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Kyrgyzstan Sessions

11 Hours

A kaleidoscopic album of music for jaw harp (AKA Jew’s harp, khomus, komuz, trump, etc), which constantly shapeshifts because of...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

sMiLes

Jowee Omicil

A creative individualist through and through, Canadian-Haitian saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Jowee Omicil has assembled another repertoire rich in ideas and...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Tanuevo

Bandonegro

Bandonegro is a Polish tango quartet. Over the course of their 15-year career, they have developed a style that, inspired...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Smestániá

Gabba

Welcome to life in a rambling house in Oslo where Gabba hangs out, parties, barbecues or just jams in the...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

From Minho to Euphrates

Lamia Yared & Efren Lopez

To say that this album explores medieval religious music from around the Mediterranean undersells it. The record subverts our sense...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Rhythm & Jews Revisited

The Klezmatics

New York klezmer band The Klezmatics are celebrating their 40th anniversary and that includes a (first-time) vinyl release of absolutely...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Fire of God’s Love

Sister Irene O’Connor

This 1973 LP is a solo work by the Australian nun Sister Irene O’Connor, who laid down its keyboard parts...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Moreïne/Déclives

La Tène

It proves very difficult to tell what is electronic and what isn’t on La Tène’s cavernous and insistent new record,...

Reviewed in issue January/2026

Afro Baroque

Yakir Arbib & Conti Bilong

This is a remarkable collaboration between two great, yet very different, musicians. Yakir Arbib, who the press have called “the...

Reviewed in issue January/2026