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Reviews

Review of Fly Higher

Fly Higher

Soothsayers

Wah Wah 45s

Rating: ★★★★

Fly Higher drops shortly after genre-crossing fusionists Soothsayers celebrate 25 years together – and what a way to celebrate! The...

Reviewed by Andrew Taylor-Dawson in issue: December/2025

Review of Finishing

Finishing

N’Faly Kouyaté

Namun Records

Rating: ★★★★

Best known for his vocal, kora and balafon work with the glorious Afro Celt Sound System, N’Faly Kouyaté now shows...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: December/2025

Review of Farewell, Angelina

Farewell, Angelina

Joan Baez

Craft Recordings

Rating: ★★★★

Having made her name as the ‘queen of folk’, singing all acoustic and mostly traditional material, by 1965 Baez was...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: December/2025

Review of Guajiro Chic

Guajiro Chic

Raúl Paz

Coloma

Rating: ★★★★

Following a four-year studio album silence, famed Cuban singer Raúl Paz returns with a good-natured set that leans into themes...

Reviewed by Andrew Taylor-Dawson in issue: December/2025

Review of Long Journey Home – A Century After The 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention

Long Journey Home – A Century After The 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention

VARIOUS ARTISTS | Various Artists

Appalsongs

Rating: ★★★★

John McCutcheon is known for his concept albums paying homage to folks like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. His new...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue: December/2025

Review of Tu

Tu

Yijia

Yijia

Rating: ★★★

The Chinese character from which this album takes its name refers to soil and carries an association with outmoded things....

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: December/2025

Review of Ura Uku

Ura Uku

Jatun Mama

Eck Echo / Kimchi Records

Rating: ★★★★

Based in the Ecuadorian Andes, ‘neotraditional’ Jatun Mama, AKA producer Jesús Atzil Bonilla, reshapes the music of his native land...

Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: December/2025

Review of Life & Time

Life & Time

Mike Reid & Joe Henry

Work Song Inc / Thirty Tigers

Rating: ★★★★

Two Grammy-winning songwriters – one a former NFL footballer, Mike Reid, whose heavily grained voice carries these songs, and the...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: December/2025

Review of Dakan

Dakan

Orchestra Gold

Top of the World

Orchestra Gold

Rating: ★★★★

As opening statements go, you can’t get much more gloriously emphatic than ‘Diyanye Ko’ which kicks off the fourth album...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: December/2025

Review of Lost Measures

Lost Measures

Leveret

Top of the World

Leveret

Rating: ★★★★★

Leveret (Sam Sweeney on fiddle and viola, Andy Cutting on button accordion/melodeon and Rob Harbron on English concertina) return with...

Reviewed by Billy Rough in issue: December/2025

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