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Review of North Star Calling

North Star Calling

Leela Gilday

Top of the World

Diva Sound Records

Rating: ★★★★★

When listening to Leela Gilday's latest album, North Star Calling, one is instantly transported to a vast land of powerful...

Reviewed by Marc Fournier in issue: May/2020

Review of It Wasn’t Hard to Love You

It Wasn’t Hard to Love You

Fanfare Ciocarlia

Top of the World

Asphalt Tango

Rating: ★★★★

Is this the last album we will hear from Fanfare Ciocarlia? The world’s foremost Balkan brass band are not retiring...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: December/2021

Review of Ephemera

Ephemera

Ensemble Lingua Franca

Lingua Franca Productions

Rating: ★★★

All four musicians of Lingua Franca are graduates of the Rotterdam Conservatoire (CODARTS) and two are now teachers there, specialising...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: November/2017

Review of Wild Games

Wild Games

Vedan Kolod

CPL-Music

Rating: ★★★

There's a rugged earthiness and authenticity about Vedan Kolod. The name in old Russian means ‘Prophetic Tree’, although as a...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: May/2020

Review of Close Enough to Hear

Close Enough to Hear

Mile Twelve

Mile Twelve

Rating: ★★★★

With their previous two albums, 2017's Onwards and 2019's enchanting City on a Hill, the warmth, precision and virtuosity of...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: April/2023

Review of Celilo Falls

Celilo Falls

Rachel Harrington

Skinny Dennis Records

Rating: ★★★★

Born in a small town in Oregon, a child of the Pacific Northwest whose Pentecostal family traces its lineage back...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: Jan/Feb/2011

Review of Mirla

Mirla

Monte

Monte

Rating: ★★★★

Nature has often been an inspiration for Bomba Estéreo, a handful of tracks from their albums Elegancia Tropical and Amanecer...

Reviewed by Russ Slater in issue: January/2021

Review of Istanbul

Istanbul

Shantel & Cümbüs Cemaat

Essay Recordings

Rating: ★★★★

Given that Frankfurt DJ and producer Shantel had already gone to his ancestral home in the old borderlands of the...

Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: Aug/Sept/2020

Review of Poison Fruit

Poison Fruit

Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti

Far Out Recordings

Rating: ★★★

Poison Fruit is an electric, groove-based collage of Brazilian vibes. As an unorthodox take on Brazilian music, this album could...

Reviewed by Charlotte Algar in issue: May/2019

Review of From Kinshasa

From Kinshasa

Mbongwana Star

World Circuit

Rating: ★★★★

When the much-lauded Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili imploded in early 2013, at the height of their global fame, that...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: July/2015

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