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Reviews

Review of History Has a Heartbeat

History Has a Heartbeat

Joseph Tawadros with William Barton

Joseph Tawadros

Rating: ★★★★

Born in Cairo, Egypt and having emigrated to Australia aged three, Joseph Tawadros has done much to expand the boundaries...

Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: December/2022

Review of Crossroads Kenya: East African Benga and Rumba, 1980-1985

Crossroads Kenya: East African Benga and Rumba, 1980-1985

VARIOUS ARTISTS

No Wahala Sounds

Rating: ★★★★

It's indicative of how the music of East Africa has been overshadowed by its West African cousin that none of...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: December/2022

Review of The Coast Road

The Coast Road

Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle

Scarleod Records

Rating: ★★★

Boston-born fiddler Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe and bouzouki, guitar and piano player Daniel Quayle from the Isle of Man first began playing...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: December/2022

Review of DOST 2

DOST 2

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek

Bongo Joe

Rating: ★★★

Derya Yıldırım's vocal style may not be to everyone's taste. Compared to Anatolian pop living-legend Selda Bağcan, with whom Yıldırım...

Reviewed by Robert Rigney in issue: December/2022

Review of This Is Funkiwala

This Is Funkiwala

VARIOUS ARTISTS | Various Artists

Funkiwala

Rating: ★★★★★

London-based record label Funkiwala is a global music treasure trove, a spiritual and (hopefully) commercial home for the best and...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: December/2022

Review of Starshine

Starshine

A Moving Sound

ARC Music

Rating: ★★★

Taiwan sadly remains an afterthought in the world music community so having another A Moving Sound album arrive in 2022,...

Reviewed by James Catchpole in issue: December/2022

Review of Telluric Translations

Telluric Translations

Quee MacArthur, Luke Plumb, Joseph Peach, Charlie Grey

Quee MacArthur, Luke Plumb, Joseph Peach, Charlie Grey

Rating: ★★★

Conceived amid the strangeness that became normality during lockdown, Telluric Translations is the result of four musicians communicating across the...

Reviewed by Rob Adams in issue: December/2022

Review of Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants

Unfurl

Unfurl

Rating: ★★★★

Formed by violinist/bandleader Olivia Moore, Unfurl is a Manchester-based collective that draws upon contemporary jazz and Indian classical music, partially...

Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: December/2022

Review of Tradition II

Tradition II

Ranagri

GoatsKin

Rating: ★★★

Ranagri are an Anglo-Irish four-piece combining vocals, guitars, bouzouki, flute, whistle, harp, bodhrán and drums, its name drawn from the...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: December/2022

Review of Kekete Bue

Kekete Bue

Kanda Bongo Man

No Wahala Sounds

Rating: ★★★

One of the first Congolese artists to come to Europe and popularise the commercial soukous sound at the beginning of...

Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: December/2022

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