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Reviews

Review of Sweet Release

Sweet Release

Justin Adams & Mauro Durante

Top of the World

Ponderosa Music Records

Rating: ★★★★★

‘These strings, this drum, from another world they come, bringing songs of sweet release,’ Adams sings over a thunderous Rachid...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: December/2024

Review of Cracher le Feu

Cracher le Feu

Oonga

MTL Sauce Piquante Records

Rating: ★★★

This ‘fire-spitting’ album from Montréal is the work of producer Oonga, who has hooked up with his Belizean equivalent, Ivan...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: December/2024

Review of Drum Machine

Drum Machine

Arsenal Mikebe

Nyege Nyege Tapes

Rating: ★★★★

Don’t let their slick, suited aesthetic fool you, Ugandan drum ensemble Arsenal Mikebe are serving up a sonic onslaught of...

Reviewed by Olivia Cheves in issue: December/2024

Review of Wake the Dead

Wake the Dead

Chuck Prophet & ¿Qiensave?

Yep Roc Records

Rating: ★★★

San-Franciscan Chuck Prophet teams up with cumbia urbana group ¿Qiensave? from California with roots in Michoacán, Mexico, on Wake the...

Reviewed by Charlotte Algar in issue: December/2024

Review of The Bird of a Thousand Voices

The Bird of a Thousand Voices

Tigran Hamasyan & the Yerevan State Chamber Choir | Tigran Hamasyan

Naïve Records

Rating: ★

Pianist and composer Hamasyan certainly has his admirers and his album Luys i Luso with the Yerevan State Chamber Choir...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: December/2024

Review of Vento do Mar

Vento do Mar

Cacha Mundinho

Mundus Productions

Rating: ★★★★

This soulful album has the seamless feel of a longtime collaboration, rather than the debut production that it is. Portuguese...

Reviewed by Huw Hennessy in issue: December/2024

Review of No Love in Lagos

No Love in Lagos

Show Dem Camp, The Cavemen, Nsikak David

Show Dem Records

Rating: ★★★★

Two of Lagos’ most talented duos, The Cavemen and Show Dem Camp, speak to the dating scene in the nation’s...

Reviewed by Erin Cobby in issue: December/2024

Review of The Shovel Dance

The Shovel Dance

Shovel Dance Collective

American Dreams

Rating: ★★★

Lankum aren’t the only purveyors of doom-laden folk. London-based nine-piece Shovel Dance Collective show with this, their second album, that...

Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: December/2024

Review of Pique

Pique

Dora Morelenbaum

Mr Bongo

Rating: ★★★★

Those familiar with the surname Morelenbaum or the Latin Grammy award-winning band Bala Desejo in the context of Brazilian music...

Reviewed by Charlotte Algar in issue: December/2024

Review of Betwixt & Between 11

Betwixt & Between 11

Bridget & Kitty/Resonant Bodies

Betwixt & Between Tapes

Rating: ★★★

Betwixt & Between Tapes is a quirky, niche proposition: an occasional series of cassette tape EPs featuring traditional, improvised and...

Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: December/2024

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