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Reviews

Review of Davide

Davide

De Fuego

De Fuego

Rating: ★★★

In December 2013, Davide Lufrano Chaves, a founding member of this gifted flamenco-rumba duo died from blood cancer aged just...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Komitas

Komitas

The Gurdjieff Ensemble & Levon Eskenian

Top of the World

ECM

Rating: ★★★★★

Komitas (1869-1935) will always remain one of music history's most tantalising mysteries. Born Soghomon Soghomonian in a Turkish village and...

Reviewed by Michael Church in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Citizen

Citizen

Trinity Roots

Trinity Roots

Rating: ★★★★

Led by two ex-Fat Freddy's Drop members – guitarist Warren Maxwell and bassist Rio Hemopo – Trinity Roots have played...

Reviewed by Seth Jordan in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Eat the Moon

Eat the Moon

FY5

Swingfingers Records

Rating: ★★★★

Eat the Moon is the third album by FY5 – aka Finnders & Youngberg – and combines the swinging strings...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Haiti: Meringue & Konpa 1952-1962

Haiti: Meringue & Konpa 1952-1962

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Frémeaux & Associés 3 CDs

Rating: ★★★

An earlier Frémeaux release, 2014's Dominican Republic: Merengue, excelled in profiling the small-combo and orchestra roots of merengue in the...

Reviewed by Charles De Ledesma in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Festival Flamenco Gitano

Festival Flamenco Gitano

VARIOUS ARTISTS

ACT Music 2 CDs

Rating: ★★

Imagine a time before the kaleidoscopic wonder of world music was available at the click of a mouse . Then...

Reviewed by Jo Setters in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Dimbambe: Identité

Dimbambe: Identité

Mario Combo

Bright Moon Production

Rating: ★★★

Affable yet determined, velvet-smooth yet troubled. Such colourful, perhaps contradictory epithets could describe the Cameroonian Mario Combo and his fourth...

Reviewed by Daniel Brown in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of North Korea: Traditional Songs

North Korea: Traditional Songs

Yi Ji-Suk

Ocora Radio France

Rating: ★★★

This album features traditional north-western seodo sori, a genre of songs once associated with courtesans, and a smattering of collective...

Reviewed by Keith Howard in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Hatched

Hatched

Badi Assad

Quatro Ventos

Rating: ★★★★

While she is not widely known in the UK, Badi Assad is one of the most popular Brazilian artists in...

Reviewed by Alex Robinson in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

Review of Hunting, Love and Mockery Songs

Hunting, Love and Mockery Songs

Aka Pygmies

Ocora Radio France

Rating: ★★★★

Since the late 1950s Radio France's Ocora imprint has been releasing well-recorded and brilliantly annotated field recordings of ethnic music...

Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: Jan/Feb/2016

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