Reviews

Holdvilágos (In the Moonlight)

Napra

Napra is a Hungarian folk band that deserves to be heard. They bring a rock attitude to traditional music with...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: Nov/Dec/2010

All Because of Love

Seyed Ali Jaberi & Sina Sarlak

Recorded live in concert at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, this album is a celebration of the...

Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: November/2018

Sufi Spirit

Rocqawali

You may be forgiven for approaching this with trepidation: a Danish rock‘n’roll band playing along with qawwali (the sacred music...

Reviewed by Jameela Siddiqi in issue: August/2017

Touristes

Vieux Farka Touré & Julia Easterlin

The Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and the 25-year-old American singer Julia Easterlin met in New York in 2014 when...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: December/2015

Agadez

Bombino

Omara Moctar earned the nickname Bombino when he was 12 years old – a mere bambino exiled from his native...

Reviewed by Andy Morgan in issue: July/2011

Sweden Norway: Norrspel

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Ocora's long history of field recordings has played an important role in the documentation of musical traditions from around the...

Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: November/2015

Balka Sound

Balka Sound

A rare vinyl copy of Balka Sound’s 1984 album Afro Musik Creation is currently on offer at $275 on the...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: January/February/2023

Sanikoya

Debademba

This is the third studio album from Malian griot singer Mohamed Diaby (son of Ivorian griotte Coumba Kouyaté) and acoustic...

Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: Jan/Feb/2018

Burma: Classical Theatre Music

VARIOUS ARTISTS

With so few CDs of Burmese traditional music actually available in the West, this is an important and exciting release....

Reviewed by Barley Norton in issue: March/2011

Udondolo

Urban Village

It is unsurprising that black South African music in recent years has lacked the game-changing potency it enjoyed when soundtracking...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: March/2021