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Reviews

Review of Timbuktu Tarab

Timbuktu Tarab

Khaira Arby

Clermont Music

Rating: ★★★★

The absolute highlight of WOMAD Charlton Park last year for me was the Malian singer Khaira Arby from Timbuktu. Surrounded...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Tide

Tide

Mokoomba Rising

Top of the World

IglooMondo

Rating: ★★★★★

Hearing this new album by Zimbabwean funksters Mokoomba for the first time is a truly exciting experience, on a par...

Reviewed by Rose Skelton in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Baladi Blues 3: The Art of Baligh Hamdi

Baladi Blues 3: The Art of Baligh Hamdi

Guy Schalom & The Baladi Blues Ensemble

Ethnomusic Records

Rating: ★★

Baladi is a very particular Egyptian fusion. The name literally means ‘my country’ and its roots lie in the rural...

Reviewed by Bill Badley in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Twinklings of Hope

Twinklings of Hope

Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat

Top of the World

KKV

Rating: ★★★★

I first heard Iranian sisters Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat in Istanbul in 2006. The power in their voices, so perfectly...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Soundshades

Soundshades

Yaron Levy

Magda Records

Rating: ★★★

This is an intriguing album with moments of genuine excitement, beauty and ingenuity. Soundshades is the first recording from Yaron...

Reviewed by Bill Badley in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of The Complete Bowdoin College Concert 1960

The Complete Bowdoin College Concert 1960

Pete Seeger

Smithsonian Folkways

Rating: ★★★★★

This album chronicles the only existing complete concert performance by the inestimably important American folk musician during the period in...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Break It Up

Break It Up

Rura

Greentrax Records

Rating: ★★★★

Rura are one of the most promising and interesting young bands to emerge recently and this, their debut album, establishes...

Reviewed by Billy Rough in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Sou Luz

Sou Luz

Dona Rosa

Jaro

Rating: ★★

It has been over a decade since Dona Rosa went from street singer in Lisbon’s Baixa to a world sensation...

Reviewed by GonÇalo Frota in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Essencia

Essencia

Madredeus

Wrasse Records

Rating: ★★★★

What’s good about the newly reformed and reinvented Madredeus is that they sound so much like the Madredeus of old....

Reviewed by Alex Robinson in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

Review of Way Up On The Hill

Way Up On The Hill

Hatful of Rain

UMS

Rating: ★★

Here’s a jaunty set of songs from the Sussex-based Appalachian-themed band Hatful of Rain, rolling through a tidal wave of...

Reviewed by Rose Skelton in issue: Aug/Sep/2012

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