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Reviews

Review of The Color Line

The Color Line

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Frémeaux et Associés (3 CDs,)

Rating: ★★★

With recent events in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement questioning whether the Civil Rights campaign of more...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Cuba in America 1939-1962

Cuba in America 1939-1962

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Frémeaux et Associés

Rating: ★★★★★

We tend to think of the pre-revolutionary period in terms of Americans in Cuba, and the associated clichés: gangsters, gambling,...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Canta Cartola

Canta Cartola

Teresa Cristina

Nonesuch Records

Rating: ★★★

Cartola was perhaps the most exhilarating of all samba songwriters. Not the kind of samba like the frantic dance...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Bird's Nest

Bird's Nest

The Fretless

The Fretless

Rating: ★★★★

Their 2012 debut Waterbound and self-titled second album from two years later were both judged ‘Instrumental Album of the Year’...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of ¡Vamos a Guarachar!

¡Vamos a Guarachar!

Orkesta Mendoza

Glitterbeat Records

Rating: ★★★★

David Byrne injected irony into cumbia. Argentina's shanty-town bands injected sleaze and spunk. Now, Tucson's Orkesta Mendoza have taken Latin...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Madera

Madera

Andino Suns

Creative Saskatchewan

Rating: ★★★

Andean music is the ultimate ex-pat music, not only because it works well in shopping arcades, but because so many...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Shadow of Plenty

Shadow of Plenty

Furnace Mountain

Furnace Mountain

Rating: ★★★

Two characteristics set the music of Furnace Mountain apart: singer and bassist Aimee Curl's tremolo-laden voice and the band's reverence...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Fio da Memória

Fio da Memória

Luísa Maita

Top of the World

Cumbancha Records

Rating: ★★★★★

Maita's 2010 debut, while pleasant enough, gave little indication of the innovative experimentation of this, its follow-up. Early last year...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of Carretero

Carretero

Cándido Fabré

Tumi Music

Rating: ★★★★

Cándido Fabré has proved himself time and again to be one of Cuba's best living soneros. He first attracted...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

Review of El Changüí Majadero

El Changüí Majadero

Changüí Majadero

Changüí Majadero Music

Rating: ★★★★

Changüí music hails from the recently hurricane-ravaged area of Baracoa in Cuba's easterly Guantanamo province: it is a graceful, Caribbean-soaked...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2017

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