Reviews

Magic Spirit Quartet

Majid Bekkas

As one of the leaders of the Gnawa revival and its incursions into fusion, Majid Bekkas has stressed the importance...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Yewoulen (Wake Up)

Awale Jant Band

Bringing together members of the Senegalese-born singer Biram Seck's Jant Band and French guitarist Thibaut Remy's London-based African-European collective Awale,...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

The Ripple Effect

Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabaté

A dozen years ago, the American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck took a journey across Africa to research the origins of...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Siberia Extreme

Chyskyyrai, Tim Hodgkinson & Ken Hyder

A unique offering of what at first sounds like it could be experimental field recordings from the northernmost republic of...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

One Day Band Vol 1

VARIOUS ARTISTS

What can you achieve in one day? This is the question posed by Trestle Records in East London with their...

Reviewed in issue April/2020

Fu Chronicles

Antibalas

This isn't your average Afrobeat album; this one explores not only messages of black power and equality, but also the...

Reviewed in issue April/2020

Curiche

Newen Afrobeat

In the past ten years Afrobeat has spread across Latin America, new disciples discovering the genre through the internet and...

Reviewed in issue April/2020

Crossing Roots

Ralf Siedhoff & Manuel Delgado meet the Karnataka College of Percussion

Nineteen years ago, Spanish flamenco guitarist Manuel Delgado and German guitarist Ralf Siedhoff teamed up with South Indian Karnatic musicians...

Reviewed in issue April/2020

Balimaya

Balimaya

In the Mande language, balimaya means ‘kinship’ or fraternity, and that's the approach that this Afro-jazzy quintet promotes in the...

Reviewed in issue April/2020

Flash of the Spirit

Jon Hassell & Farafina

Jon Hassell is a contemporary classical minimalist musician who forged a deep engagement with music from India and West Africa....

Reviewed in issue April/2020