Reviews
Zydeco: Black Creole French Music & Blues 1928-1972
Zydeco is Creole French for something lacking spice – food or gossip – and only came into common use in...
Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
The Art of the Lyra
Talented composer-musician Stelios Petrakis emerged from Ross Daly's teaching workshops in 1999. Daly, a Crete resident and multi-instrumentalist had himself...
Reviewed by Marc Dubin in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
The Ballads of Child Migration: Songs for Britain's Child Migrants
There's an impressive list of musicians here; the songwriters include Jez Lowe, Julie Matthews & Chris While, Boo Hewerdine, John...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
Bays
Aotearoa's (or New Zealand's) hi-tech, self-described ‘seven-headed soul monster’ doesn’t make studio albums in any sort of haste. This eagerly...
Reviewed by Jon Lusk in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
Mountain Meeting
Bridget Marsden & Leif Ottosson
Some records are special from the very first moment. Mountain Meeting opens with a single fiddle tune, a burbling figure...
Reviewed by Tim Woodall in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
Fine Bloom
Free the Honey is a quartet that plies its trade with a tight-knit, nearly telepathic ease. Jenny Hill (vocals, fiddle,...
Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
Pandemonium: The Essential Bellowhead
The bad news is that, after 11 years, the 11 members of the great English folk big-band Bellowhead are going...
Reviewed by Julian May in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
Pipa Potluck
The ‘potluck’ in the title of this album, a collaborative project led by Chinese pipa virtuoso Gao Hong, refers to...
Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
100% Dynamite
Subtitled Ska, Soul, Rocksteady & Funk in Jamaica, this pioneering compilation was a hit when first released almost 20 years...
Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
