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Reviews

Review of Zoom

Zoom

Rachid Taha

Top of the World

Wrasse Records

Rating: ★★★★

Rachid Taha's first album in four years is not quite in the same bracket as Muhammad Ali's retrieval of the...

Reviewed by Nige Tassell in issue: June/2013

Review of Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys

Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Anti Records

Rating: ★★★★

The idea was both unexpected and charming: plunder the rich store of mariners’ melodies, real and mock shanties and pirates’...

Reviewed by Kim Burton in issue: June/2013

Review of Storymap

Storymap

Éamonn Coyne & Kris Drever

Reveal Records

Rating: ★★★

Lau’s Kris Drever and Salsa Celtica’s Éamonn Coyne got together to record Storymap in Scotland last autumn, with guests including...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: June/2013

Review of The Rough Guide to Irish Music

The Rough Guide to Irish Music

VARIOUS ARTISTS

World Music Network (2 CDs;)

Rating: ★★★★★

Recession and emigration has taken its toll in recent years on Ireland’s traditional music scene, with pub closures, rising alcohol...

Reviewed by Michael Quinn in issue: June/2013

Review of Beyond the Ragasphere

Beyond the Ragasphere

Debashish Bhattacharya

Top of the World

Riverboat Records

Rating: ★★★★

Whoever still thinks of 'fusion' in the context of Indian music as a term of abuse will have to change...

Reviewed by Rolf Killus in issue: June/2013

Review of Broken Down Gentlemen

Broken Down Gentlemen

Faustus

Navigator Records

Rating: ★★★★

Faustus was the man with the magic touch, though it came at the price of damnation. Faustus the band share...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: June/2013

Review of Blues from Elsewhere

Blues from Elsewhere

Koby Israelite

Asphalt Tango

Rating: ★★★★

Koby Israelite isn’t a man to be put in a box. Indeed, the Israeli-born, south London multi¬instrumentalist is a world...

Reviewed by Ed Stocker in issue: June/2013

Review of L’amour Fou

L’amour Fou

Françoise Hardy

Virgin Records

Rating: ★★★★

It’s been 50 years, incredibly, since Françoise Hardy’s first single introduced a demurely beautiful Parisienne to the top ranks of...

Reviewed by Phil Sweeney in issue: June/2013

Review of Dur-Dur, Vol 5

Dur-Dur, Vol 5

Dur-Dur Band

Awesome Tapes from Africa

Rating: ★★★★★

It looks to me like this decade is seeing a huge growth in sales of retro world music albums, which...

Reviewed by Max Reinhardt in issue: June/2013

Review of Yidishe Lider

Yidishe Lider

Arkady Gendler

Golden Horn Records

Rating: ★★★★

Yidishe Lider is the fruit of an extraordinary project to honour the life and work of Arkady Gendler, who was...

Reviewed by Helen Beer in issue: June/2013

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