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Reviews

Review of Nefydd

Nefydd

Calan

Calan

Rating: ★★★★

Calan have had a lot of superlatives thrown at them: Cool Cymru, storming juggernaut, Welsh folk supergroup. And ever since...

Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: February/March/2025

Review of We Are the Keepers

We Are the Keepers

Crispy Watkins

Crispy Watkins

Rating: ★★★

Maybe it’s the feeling of hopelessness that’s enveloped the US right now, or the sense of impending dread as a...

Reviewed by Devon Leger in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Everybody Wants to Be Like Mary

Everybody Wants to Be Like Mary

ADAM

Unroofed Records

Rating: ★★★★

Scottish folk music is no stranger to electronica – going back to the original ‘techno piper’, the late Martyn Bennett...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Carmen 404

Carmen 404

Lolomis

Airfono

Rating: ★★★★

With this fourth album, the French-ish quartet Lolomis continue to provide high-grade, adventurous splicings of hard electronics and sylvan folk....

Reviewed by Martin Longley in issue: February/March/2025

Review of The Instruction Manual

The Instruction Manual

The Instruction Manual

Miúin

Rating: ★★

I’d not heard a robotic choir before, and won’t hear one again based on The Instruction Manual’s self-titled debut album....

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Pacifico

Pacifico

Robin Layne & The Rhythm Makers

Rhythm Coast Records

Rating: ★★★

The Pacific coast is this congenial album’s common denominator: percussionist, composer and educator Robin Layne is based around Vancouver and...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: February/March/2025

Review of FOLKMOSIS

FOLKMOSIS

Beth Malcolm

Beth Malcolm

Rating: ★★★★

Beth Malcolm’s follow-up to her 2023 debut album, Kissed and Cried, presents a delightful musical triptych that takes the listener...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Kananayé

Kananayé

Kanazoe, Clotilde Rullaud, Abdoulaye Traore, Boubacar Djiga & Achille Nacoulma

Tzig’art

Rating: ★★★

This album has its origins in a project commissioned for a 2019 festival in Burkina Faso in which French singer...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Väder

Väder

Emma & Ellika

Kakafon Records

Rating: ★★★★

My first hearing of Väder was on Swedish Radio, the sound of a fiddle duo stopping me in my tracks...

Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Birna

Birna

Wardruna

By Norse Music/Sony Music

Rating: ★★★★

Four years in the making, Warduna’s new album is a journey into the world of Birna – the she-bear in...

Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: February/March/2025

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