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Reviews

Review of Film of Life

Film of Life

Tony Allen

Top of the World

Jazz Village

Rating: ★★★★

The man who Brian Eno has dubbed the finest drummer on the planet has made a string of intriguing albums...

Reviewed by Max Reinhardt in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Mountain Melodies: Rubab Music of Afghanistan

Mountain Melodies: Rubab Music of Afghanistan

Quraishi

Evergreen Music

Rating: ★★★

The rubab, the national instrument of Afghanistan, is one of the world's great plucked instruments. Its warm muscular sound is...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of The ABCD

The ABCD

Afrikan Boy

YAM Records

Rating: ★★★★

Born and bred in London, the rapper Olushola Ajose, better known as Afrikan Boy, has re-examined his Nigerian roots in...

Reviewed by Clyde Macfarlane in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Operette

Operette

Moussu T e lei Jovents

Le Chant du Monde

Rating: ★★★★

Marseille's favourite sons, Moussu T e lei Jovents, finally get round to their town's classic traditions. Marseille's operette music hall...

Reviewed by Philip Sweeney in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Wouty

Wouty

Abdoulaye Samb & Minnjiaraby

Abdoulaye Samb & Minnjiaraby

Rating: ★★★★

On first listen this sounds like a very pleasant, semi-acoustic, low-key, album of relaxed, modern Senegalese music. After several plays,...

Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Mbira Korositina

Mbira Korositina

Chartwell Dutiro & Mike Parnell

Ingoma Records

Rating: ★★★★

Chartwell Dutiro is a well-known mbira (thumb piano) player, a former member of Thomas Mapfumo's group, and a teacher of...

Reviewed by Martin Sinnock in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Griot Classique

Griot Classique

Mamadou Diabaté

JRS Records

Rating: ★★★★

A decade younger than his cousin Toumani, the kora player Mamadou Diabaté is arguably the better-known of the two in...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Democrazy

Democrazy

NMB Afrobeat Experience

Cristal Records

Rating: ★★★

It's a sign of our amazing cross-cultural times that a group hailing from the Massif Central, the wild granite heart...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Cambridge Folk Festival: Celebrating 50 Years

Cambridge Folk Festival: Celebrating 50 Years

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Delphonic Music

Rating: ★★★★

Not, as you might have supposed, a track from each year of the Cambridge Folk Festival's 50-year history, but a...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

Review of Segunda Vez

Segunda Vez

Mike Marshall & Choro Famoso

Adventure Music

Rating: ★★★

A prolific mandolin virtuoso, Mike Marshall juggles genres like other musicians juggle day jobs. Segunda Vez is basically the second...

Reviewed by Brendon Griffin in issue: Nov/Dec/2014

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