Reviews
Upopo Sanke
This posthumous release was recorded in 2003, on a farm in the Tokachi district of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of...
Reviewed by Chris Wheatley in issue: November/2023
Last Breaths from Aleppo
One of the side effects of the Syrian civil war has been its threat to the rich Sufi musical tradition...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: November/2023
En Kötü Iyi Olur
Turkish trio Lalalar are a pretty convincing example of how oppression can cause unruly bursts of refusenik artistic expression. The...
Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: November/2023
Moonshine
Initially a pioneer in electronic dance music with a specific Egyptian flavour, culminating in a perfect synthesis with shaabi and...
Reviewed by Neil van der Linden in issue: November/2023
Jinê
Saîdê Goyî is a Turkish Kurdish musician and a dengbêj, or minstrel. He’s certainly got a strong and striking voice....
Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: November/2023
The Water Garden
Okinawa-born Kojun Kokuba’s The Water Garden was first released in 1993, and proved immensely popular, hence this vinyl reissue, complete...
Reviewed by Keith Howard in issue: November/2023
Hot Pot Totto
WaqWaq Kingdom’s album Hot Pot Totto is a joyous and defiant response to ecological anxiety. The album is a brew...
Reviewed by Neil van der Linden in issue: November/2023
Ongaku Zukan
Sadly, Sakamoto left this mortal coil in March 2023: re-releasing this 1984 album, originally recorded as the Yellow Magic Orchestra...
Reviewed by Keith Howard in issue: November/2023
Chapter I: Forever, For Now
Anoushka Shankar’s last significant release, Love Letters, released in 2020 on Mercury Classics, was a very personal collection of songs...
Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: November/2023
Somanti
The follow-up to 2020’s Vodou Alé opens with the Creole voices of Haitian vodou troupe Chouk Bwa echoing eerily between...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: November/2023
