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Review of Songs of the Roma

Songs of the Roma

Simon Thacker & Justyna Jablonska

Top of the World

Slap the Moon Records

Rating: ★★★★

This exploration of the rich Gypsy heritage of Balkan music is the second album by Scottish guitarist Simon Thacker with...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Live At Carnegie Hall

Live At Carnegie Hall

Natalia Lafourcade

Sony

Rating: ★★★

Playing live at New York’s Carnegie Hall is a career-crowning moment for Latin American artists, representing global recognition and a...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: April/2025

Review of The Peacock and the Sunflower

The Peacock and the Sunflower

Veretski Pass & Joel Rubin

Borscht Beat

Rating: ★★★★

Veretski Pass are one of the world’s leading traditional klezmer bands, partly because they search out unusual and little-known repertoire....

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: April/2025

Review of Kinetic

Kinetic

Black Flower

Sdban Ultra

Rating: ★★★★★

Kinetic is the sixth album from Belgian five-piece Black Flower, and their sound is rightly evolving with their experience. The...

Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: April/2025

Review of Argot

Argot

Passepartout Duo

Passepartout Duo

Rating: ★★★★

Rarely does technological invention deliver such a beautiful result as Argot, the fourth album by Italian pianist Nicoletta Favari and...

Reviewed by Justin Turford in issue: April/2025

Review of Hymns of Bantu

Hymns of Bantu

Abel Selaocoe

Top of the World

Warner Classics

Rating: ★★★★★

Anything Abel Selaocoe touches is bound to be extraordinary. Having followed his career from its early days, it’s been a...

Reviewed by Alexandra Petropoulos in issue: April/2025

Review of Simple Pleasures

Simple Pleasures

Alison Brown

Compass Records Group

Rating: ★★★★★

Pioneering banjo player, composer and a key leading lady of bluegrass, Alison Brown wears many hats of leadership. She grew...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue: November/2024

Review of A Thousand Pokes

A Thousand Pokes

Stick in the Wheel

Top of the World

From Here Records

Rating: ★★★★

‘Pokes’ were typos to 14th-century scribes, and it's the rough music of a mistaken world, poked through with holes, that's...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: November/2024

Review of Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Lemon Bucket Orkestra

Lemon Bucket Orkestra

Rating: ★★★

Toronto-based Lemon Bucket Orchestra are Canada's version of Gogol Bordello and, like Eugene Hütz, it seems a good many of...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: November/2024

Review of Start Close In

Start Close In

The Rheingans Sisters

Rheingans Sisters Records

Rating: ★★★★

You would expect from The Rheingans Sisters, Rowan and Anna, the assertion of female autonomy, and ‘Devils’, their take on...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: November/2024

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