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Reviews

Review of Kaustinen Live 2003

Kaustinen Live 2003

Maria Kalaniemi Quartet

Åkerö

Rating: ★★★★

Thankfully someone had the good sense to blow the dust off some tapes from this fantastic concert performed a decade...

Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Herself and Myself

Herself and Myself

Thomas McCarthy

Tin Folk Music

Rating: ★★★

Thomas McCarthy is an Irish Traveller who, when he was a child, lived on a site beneath the Westway, the...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Avaz

Avaz

Keyvan Chemirani

Innacor Records

Rating: ★★★★

Iranian percussionist Keyvan Chemirani leads an impressive group, bringing together Persian mystical poetry and Breton laments – it's slightly similar...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Sons of the Wind

Sons of the Wind

Soundwalk Collective

Asphalt Tango

Rating: ★★★★

Soundwalk Collective are self-proclaimed ‘sonic nomads.’ On Sons of the Wind they travel through Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia,...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Battle Cry Remixed

Battle Cry Remixed

Tour De Force

Dub-Stuy Records

Rating: ★★★

Back in the early-1990s, when rave culture took off in the UK, many a party would have a dub room...

Reviewed by Garth Cartwright in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Laughter Out of Tears

Laughter Out of Tears

Moira Smiley & Voco

Whim Records

Rating: ★★★

Moira Smiley has cemented her status as a musical polyglot with her latest release alongside her female choir Voco. Not...

Reviewed by Mike Fleck in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Mazal

Mazal

Aziz Sahmaoui & The University of Gnawa

Top of the World

World Village

Rating: ★★★★

The first University of Gnawa release came in 2011, when Sahmaoui, a founder of Orchestre National de Barbès, brought together...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar

Lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters

Top of the World

Nonesuch Records

Rating: ★★★★

Robert Plant refreshingly continues to refuse to be defined by his past. Backed by his eclectic live band the Sensational...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Gwo Ka: Music of Guadeloupe, West Indies

Gwo Ka: Music of Guadeloupe, West Indies

Tradisyon Ka

Soul Jazz

Rating: ★★★★

Many listeners may have been drawn to the exuberant, complex percussion found in Guadaloupe by Kassav’, the long-lived Paris-based band...

Reviewed by Charles De Ledesma in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

Review of Male Voices of Fado

Male Voices of Fado

VARIOUS ARTISTS

ARC Music

Rating: ★★★

As is often the case with compilations, one obsesses not so much about the selection but rather about the missing...

Reviewed by GonÇalo Frota in issue: Jan/Feb/2015

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