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Reviews

Review of Approach to Anima

Approach to Anima

maya ongaku

Guruguru Brain

Rating: ★★

Basically a trio, the self-proclaimed ‘ragtag collective’ of maya ongaku is based in the Ace General Store on their local...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of Live at Café Oto

Live at Café Oto

OKI

Mais Um

Rating: ★★★★

OKI is the tonkori-wielding bard famed for bringing the endangered music of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, one of Japan’s...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of Upopo Sanke

Upopo Sanke

Umeko Ando

Pingipung

Rating: ★★★★★

This posthumous release was recorded in 2003, on a farm in the Tokachi district of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of The Water Garden

The Water Garden

Kojun Kokuba

em records

Rating: ★★★★

Okinawa-born Kojun Kokuba’s The Water Garden was first released in 1993, and proved immensely popular, hence this vinyl reissue, complete...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of Hot Pot Totto

Hot Pot Totto

WaqWaq Kingdom

Phantom Limb

Rating: ★★★★

WaqWaq Kingdom’s album Hot Pot Totto is a joyous and defiant response to ecological anxiety. The album is a brew...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of Ongaku Zukan

Ongaku Zukan

Ryuichi Sakamoto

wewantsounds

Rating: ★★★★★

Sadly, Sakamoto left this mortal coil in March 2023: re-releasing this 1984 album, originally recorded as the Yellow Magic Orchestra...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of Chapter I: Forever, For Now

Chapter I: Forever, For Now

Anoushka Shankar

LEITER

Rating: ★★★

Anoushka Shankar’s last significant release, Love Letters, released in 2020 on Mercury Classics, was a very personal collection of songs...

Reviewed in issue November/2023

Review of Travellers

Travellers

Jason Singh & The Banwasi Collective

Top of the World

Hudson Records

Rating: ★★★★

UK-based composer and sound artist Jason Singh is known for his innovative work making music out of the sounds of...

Reviewed in issue October/2023

Review of Lost in Tajikistan

Lost in Tajikistan

VARIOUS ARTISTS | Various Artists

Top of the World

Riverboat Records / World Music Network

Rating: ★★★★★

These tracks were recorded in 2008 after English musician Lu Edmonds began recording musicians in a makeshift studio in the...

Reviewed in issue October/2023

Review of One Drop of Kindness

One Drop of Kindness

Yungchen Lhamo

Real World Records

Rating: ★★★★

Yungchen Lhamo has been in exile from Tibet since 1989 and One Drop of Kindness, her seventh release, continues her...

Reviewed in issue October/2023

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