Reviews
Canta Cartola
Cartola was perhaps the most exhilarating of all samba songwriters. Not the kind of samba like the frantic dance...
Reviewed by GonÇalo Frota in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
New Voices
One of the finest of Finnish accordionists, Markku Lepistö plays with all the elegance and grace of a chamber musician...
Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
Yumi Kagura
Kagura is an ancient form of Japanese Shinto sacred music and dance, which accompanies the ritual chanting of mythological tales....
Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
Madjafalao
Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou
One of the great West African big bands of the 1970s, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo were Benin’s answer to Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab,...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
Recados de Fora
Angolan singer Bonga made his first album in 1972. Now, at the age of 74, his 30th album is yet...
Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
Bird's Nest
Their 2012 debut Waterbound and self-titled second album from two years later were both judged ‘Instrumental Album of the Year’...
Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
Lam Phloen Grade A Guy
Composer, producer and savvy businessman Doi Inthanon (named after Thailand's tallest mountain) has created a huge catalogue of songs and...
Reviewed by John Clewley in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
¡Vamos a Guarachar!
David Byrne injected irony into cumbia. Argentina's shanty-town bands injected sleaze and spunk. Now, Tucson's Orkesta Mendoza have taken Latin...
Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
Stop the Parade
Sophie Solomon stages a tableau of Russian melodrama and sorrow for her welcome return to the studio after seven years....
Reviewed by Tommie Black-Roff in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
The Seas Between Us
Growing up in Perthshire, Sophie Ramsay was immersed in the traditional songs and music of Scotland. Her latest album, consisting...
Reviewed by Billy Rough in issue: Jan/Feb/2017
