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Reviews

Review of New World, Lonely Ride

New World, Lonely Ride

Michael Grigoni & Pan•American

Kranky

Rating: ★★★

New World, Lonely Ride is the debut of guitar-centric original music by Michael Grigoni & Pan•American. Drawing on elements of...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: July/2025

Review of Tsapiky! Modern Music from Southwest Madagascar

Tsapiky! Modern Music from Southwest Madagascar

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Sublime Frequencies

Rating: ★★★★

You only need listen to a couple of seconds of tsapiky to hear that it’s a party. The style (which...

Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: July/2025

Review of Gamble

Gamble

Zoé Basha

Zoé Basha

Rating: ★★★

Gamble, Zoé Basha’s debut album, is a worthy introduction to the Dublin-based French-American singer-songwriter’s music. Drawing upon structural and stylistic...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: July/2025

Review of No New Summers

No New Summers

Dylan Golden Aycock

Feeding Tube Records/Worried Songs

Rating: ★★★

Deceptively, No New Summers opens with ‘No Spring Chicken’ – five minutes of solo American primitive John Fahey-style guitar. The...

Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: July/2025

Review of Viens Me Chercher

Viens Me Chercher

Iry LeJeune

Southern Folklife Collection/Yep Roc Records

Rating: ★★★★★

In the 1940s, Cajun music had descended into a jumble of English language, Western swing-influenced fiddle stringband, a far cry...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue: July/2025

Review of Tidawt

Tidawt

Ahmed Ag Kaedy & Will Guthrie

Ahmed Ag Kaedyy & Will Guthrie

Rating: ★★★★

This new tape from Malian guitarist Ahmed Ag Kaedy and Australian drummer Will Guthrie is full of dynamism. The hot...

Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: July/2025

Review of Ella Hanshaw’s Black Book

Ella Hanshaw’s Black Book

Ella Hanshaw

Spinster

Rating: ★★★

Growing up in West Virginia in the 1930s and 40s, this singer-songwriter, while listening to the likes of Merle Haggard...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: July/2025

Review of Hawalat

Hawalat

Charif Megarbane

Top of the World

Habibi Funk

Rating: ★★★★

It’s been hard keeping track of the work of Charif Megarbane. The Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist has released dozens of...

Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: July/2025

Review of Scenes from uniXia

Scenes from uniXia

boci

Tree Being Records

Rating: ★★★★

boci describes her second, even more esoteric, album as a psycho-magical concept set in her own world, uniXia: “During a...

Reviewed by Tom Newell in issue: July/2025

Review of Transform Me Then Into A Fish

Transform Me Then Into A Fish

Martin Carthy

HemHem Records

Rating: ★★★★★

Carthy celebrates his 84th birthday on May 21 with a new album that echoes, after 60 years, his first. Transform...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: July/2025

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