Deanne Sole

Features

WOMADelaide 2009

From the fanaticism that surrounded Seun Kuti’s Saturday night performance to the seated crowd that succumbed to Dona Rosa’s smile, WOMADelaide was a mix of sights, styles, and instruments. [31 March 2009]

The Best World Music of 2008

Albums from India, Central America, Australia, Quebec, and Ethiopia are but a globetrotting fraction of the year's best music from around the world. [11 December 2008]

Saint Vinnie

Deanne Sole journeys Melbourne's charity outlets, exploring the fundamentals of the down under St. Vincent de Paul outlet: Bargains, surprises, drunks. [9 July 2008]

Kids Don’t Go and Buy Anything Out of This Section: World Music 2007

As a category world music is both useful and frustrating. It puts CDs on the shelves and prevents people picking them up. It is the other-than category: other-than rock, other-than indie, other-than everything. It is the whole world and nothing definite. [18 December 2007]

East and West: World Music in 2006

From Thailand to Tanzania, from France to Cuba and Romania: Deanne Sole's wrap-up of the year's best world music trips the globe fantastic. [12 December 2006]

Reviews

Toto La Momposina: La Bodega

Toto la Momposina is one of those musicians who would have to work at being anything less than good. [6 November 2009]

Caethua: The Long Afternoon of Earth

A thoughtful, wistful, and likable album. [4 November 2009]

Vandana Vishwas: Meera - The Lover

Through most of the album, the mood is one of devout serenity and subtle modulation. [29 October 2009]

Ariana Delawari: Lion of Panjshir

The album sweeps along on extravagant rowls of fuzz and trippy, slurring string arrangements. [26 October 2009]

Watcha Clan: Diaspora Remixed

As usual with remixes, it's interesting to find out what the different remixers keep and remove. [20 October 2009]

Monika Jalili: Élan

Her voice moves with a dolorous slowness without actually seeming sad. [19 October 2009]

Granada Doaba: Granada Doaba

Not Radio Tarifa but not bad. [14 October 2009]

Brownout: Aguilas and Cobras

The funk side of things swells, and a new sound, psych, makes an entrance, bringing with it fresh guitars and a river of violins to cushion the alertness of the Latin trumpets and percussion. [13 October 2009]

Various Artists: España

The compilers have aimed for Putumayo's usual easygoing, catchy aesthetic -- their in-house style -- and hit it without faltering. [12 October 2009]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Tango Revival

While the word "revival" might suggest musicians trying to breathe fresh life into a corpse, the players here perform like people who are continuing a tradition, not Frankensteining one. [11 October 2009]

Huun Huur Tu & Carmen Rizzo: Eternal

If you had to sum this album up in one note it would be a long vibration -- something like the extended chime of a bell. [5 October 2009]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Irish Folk

Geoff Willis, the compiler, must have been aiming to put together a concise round-up of living musicians who show their own fidelity to established styles. This comes off pretty well. [2 October 2009]

Les Triaboliques: Rivermudtwilight

Exhilarating and earthy. [1 October 2009]

Various Artists: Comfusões 1: From Angola to Brasil

The album's personality sits somewhere between Angolan lament and the more extroverted intervention of the Brazilians.

Väsen: Väsen Street

The gravity of their playing gives each song a feeling of being presented or framed, as if on a stage, illuminated. [30 September 2009]

Syran Mbenza & Ensemble Rumba Kongo: Immortal Franco: Africa’s Unrivalled Guitar Legend

A Franco tribute led by Syan Mbenza was always likely to be played with fidelity. [29 September 2009]

Kiila: Tuota Tuota

There are moments of real exhilaration, which, thanks to the roaming structure of the music, seem to come along serendipitously. [24 September 2009]

Oumou Sangaré: Seya

Oumou Sangaré has surpassed herself. [21 September 2009]

TriBeCaStan: Strange Cousin

TriBeCastan makes a "cross-cultural crossroads" sound natural, flexible, and easy. [16 September 2009]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Merengue Dance

Smart music with a one-track mind. [7 September 2009]

Kimi Djabate: Karam

Kimi Djabate sings like a neighborhood storyteller who just happens to have a good voice. [3 September 2009]

Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt: Slide to Freedom 2: Make a Better World

The ethereal diffusions of the sitar get a fine grounding from the North American blues-groove. [1 September 2009]

Cecilia Noël: A Gozar!

The audience asks for dancing, and Noël gives them something to dance to. [31 August 2009]

Deolinda: Canção Ao Lado

Canção ao Lado is fado music that grins at moody aesthetes and applauds practicality and humour. [27 August 2009]

Navegante: Microcosmos

A surge of electro bop 'n' strut, Microcosmos incorporates bits of hip hop, Latin America, rock and dance. [26 August 2009]

Baaba Maal: Television

Singing has never been Baaba Maal's problem. Finding something interesting for the voice to do is more of a challenge. [25 August 2009]

Shuta Hasunuma: Pop Ooga Plus

Playful glitch-blits with charming, frizzy edges. [24 August 2009]

Jaqee: Kokoo Girl

The album bounces with nuttiness in the ska sense of the word. [23 August 2009]

Elizete Cardoso: Canção do Amor Demais

She sounds like a woman who has grown experienced without also having grown bitter, rueful but far from broken. [19 August 2009]

Lura: Eclipse

Describing Lura as a younger, nonsmoking Cesária Évora is partly right yet partly wrong. [17 August 2009]

Michael Olatuja: Speak

The guitar licks a smooth path through 50 minutes of gospel and soul, with Yoruba touches dropped in along the way. [11 August 2009]

Tony Allen: Secret Agent

If drums were pens he'd be writing political mystery thrillers. [6 August 2009]

Various Artists: The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo from the Congo, 1954-55

Honest Jon's is doing something unusual here, taking us back to the early days of the style, opening a window into the years before the Greats came along. [5 August 2009]

Susana Baca: Seis Poemas

A small album but a charming one. [2 August 2009]

Various Artists: Funk Aid for Africa

Keyboard chills here and there. Bits of lush guitar set off against teasing brass. [29 July 2009]

Various Artists: Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk On The Isthmus 1967-77

Musica tipica, supplemented handsomely by styles from the outside.

Los Flippers: Pronto Viviremos Un Mundo Mucho Mejor

Worth the re-release. [26 July 2009]

Omar Souleyman: Dabke 2020: Folk & Pop Sounds of Syria

Even the keyboard seems scraped and bleeding. [23 July 2009]

Mariachi Real De San Diego: Mariachi Classics

Traditional mariachi being upheld with absolute fidelity. [19 July 2009]

Aritomo: Kowai Komorebi

The songs on Kowai Komorebi are pastorals that thicken into horror movies. [15 July 2009]

Various Artists: Legends of Benin

At the heart of Legends of Benin lies the spiral, the curve, the unfinished circle that leads to its replica. [14 July 2009]

Ojos de Brujo: Aocaná

Aocaná seems to me softer than their past work, more laid-back, with less scratching and fewer u-turns. [7 July 2009]

Esther Ofarim: Esther Ofarim in London

A noise that's so clean it's almost surreal. [6 July 2009]

LSD March: Uretakumo Nakunarutorika

It has been put together to disorient the listener. [5 July 2009]

Spring Creek: Way Up on a Mountain

Honest Downhome Folk [25 June 2009]

Mamer: Eagle

Mamer demystifies the experience of Chinese Central Asian music and keeps the beauty of the sound.

Ben Reynolds: How Day Earnt Its Night

A thoughtful conversation between him and the guitar. [23 June 2009]

Lily Storm: If I Had a Key to the Dawn

The songs she has chosen sound like laments, or the love songs of women whose lovers are absent. [22 June 2009]

Betse Ellis: Don’t You Want to Go?

Proof that Americana is still winning her over. [17 June 2009]

Musk Ox: Musk Ox

Musk Ox asks for a contemplative listener. [21 May 2009]

Various Artists: Boogaloo Pow Wow: Dancefloor Rendez-vous in Young Nuyorica

This collection of raucous 1960s New York boogaloo has a strong soul component. [20 May 2009]

Mamane Barka: Introducing Mamane Barka

If you want a biram album then this is obviously the one to buy. It's not as if you've got much choice. [19 May 2009]

Hermas Zopoula: Espoir

This mild-mannered guitarist from Burkina Faso with his acoustic soukousish meandering sounds nothing like Seu Jorge. [18 May 2009]

Ximena Sarinana: Mediocre

Her pop-soul tone has an indomitable spine. [17 May 2009]

Tenniscoats: Temporacha

They spend half their time wondering about the next note they're going to play and the other half feeling surprised because they've found it. [14 May 2009]

A.R. Rahman: The Best of A.R. Rahman

His ability to grab quotations from unexpected places gives him plenty of chances to throw in a musical joke if he wanted to, but it doesn't seem to be in his temperament.

Márcio Local: Don Dree Don Day Don Don

There's such delight and energy in everything he does that if he has a success with this album, it will be hard to grudge him his good luck. [13 May 2009]

Mélanie Dahan: La Princesse et les Croque-Notes

All of this is electric, attractive. [10 May 2009]

Ximo Tebar & Ivam Jazz Ensemble: Steps

There's heat in here, yet the listener is never allowed to forget that steady hands are in control. [5 May 2009]

Balkan Beat Box: Nu Made (Remixes)

While not a great album in its own right, it's a nice addition to the Box's small canon. [3 May 2009]

Various Artists: The Definitive Japanese Scene Vol.1

A well-ordered, well-selected assortment. [29 April 2009]

Various Artists: Marvellous Boy: Calypso From West Africa

The tracks are stubbornly various, each song unexpected. [24 April 2009]

Liz Carroll & John Doyle: Double Play

The beauty of this album lies in the way the instruments manage to keep a buttery, human impressionism even while they're playing swiftly. [20 April 2009]

Various Artists: Water for Life

Cover bad, album pretty good. [19 April 2009]

Toubab Krewe: Live at the Orange Peel

The West African touch Justin Perkins brings in with his kora and kamel ngoni gives the American rock sound something to work with. [16 April 2009]

Yonlu: Yonlu

A thoughtful, intelligent musician with an absurdist sense of humour, smart without being boastful. [14 April 2009]

Various Artists: Putumayo Presents India

The India of the tourist brochure. [10 April 2009]

Warsaw Village Band: Infinity

'Powerful' is the Band's default setting. [9 April 2009]

Kate Mann: Things Look Different When the Sun Goes Down

A swaying, strong-jawed album. [6 April 2009]

Amadou and Mariam: Welcome to Mali

If Amadou and Mariam's last album felt like a shift in the couple's career, then Welcome to Mali feels like an even greater one.

Trentalange: Awakening, Level One

Every emotional balloon the size of a zeppelin. [30 March 2009]

Francoiz Breut: A L’Aveuglette

A savoury voice, a savoury album. [26 March 2009]

The Isles: Troika

The guitars make a yearning, ringing sound, a 1980s-Manchester echo. [25 March 2009]

Jerks of Grass: Come on Home

When these musicians push their instruments as far as they'll go they don't hide it. [23 March 2009]

The Idan Raichel Project: Within my Walls

Listening to Within my Walls is like watching waves run up and down a beach. [12 March 2009]

Asa: Asa (Asha)

Asa's debut album is built to a small, neat scale. [10 March 2009]

Madeline: White Flag

Persuasive and appealing. [8 March 2009]

Various Artists: Arriba la Cumbia!

Arriba la Cumbia has its heart in the right place. [5 March 2009]

The Hermit Crabs: Correspondence Course EP

Beneficiaries of a Glaswegian fey-pop habit, the members of the Hermit Crabs sound plaintive even when they're addressing subjects that are not plaintive at all. [26 February 2009]

Luaka Bop: Three Inches of Music Series

It's not a surprise to see that two of the musicians on these three discs come from Brazil. [9 February 2009]

Mumiy Troll: Comrade Ambassador

Proof that ex-punks from Vladivostok are as capable of creating mainstream-indie "rockapops" as anyone else anywhere on the planet. [5 February 2009]

Kočani Orkestar: The Ravished Bride

It's easy to forget the influence that military brass once had, but every now and then a group like the Kočani Orkestar comes along to remind us.

Various Artists: Putumayo Presents: African Reggae

A good-natured introductory disc. [25 January 2009]

Luminescent Orchestrii: Neptune’s Daughter

Tunes from Romania and Moldavia have been smartened up, the jagged parts polished off to make them move more neatly, and with more of a sensual, jazzy roll. [22 January 2009]

Madera Limpia: La Corona

What looks like it would be a rap album with some Cuban touches turns out to be much more Cuban than expected. [19 January 2009]

Juaneco y su Combo: Masters of Chicha Vol. 1

To a listener raised on English-language rock music, listening to this is something like listening to filmi versions of mambo tunes or cowboy songs. [16 January 2009]

Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze:Sira

Sira is lovely in lots of small and unobtrusive ways -- it sort of wanders up to you, does its thing gently for a while, then melts away into the foliage, mission accomplished. [15 January 2009]

Marianne Dissard: L’Entredeux

Marianne Dissard lives in Arizona but doesn't sound like it. She sounds French. [8 January 2009]

Soy Un Caballo: Les Hueres de Raison

The male/female duo of Soy un Caballo concentrates on being enigmatic and adorable the way Axl Rose concentrates on being loud. [6 January 2009]

Pas Chic Chic: Au Contraire

A kind of pitiless New Wave chanson pop.

Group Inerane: Guitars From Agadez (Music of Niger)

This might be the first time that Sublime Frequencies could be mischievously accused of jumping on a bandwagon. [19 December 2008]

Various Artists: Sound of the World

Sound of the World: Beyond the Horizon is the most eccentric collection of foreign-language songs widely available, and the best one to pick up because of it. [3 December 2008]

LA JR: 17 Animales

17 Animales is an orchestrated series of false starts, feints, ruses that sound as if they might resolve themselves into melodies at any minute, but never do. [1 December 2008]

Dozan: Introducing Dozan

The neatness of the arrangements, and the way the voices come together, suggest madrigals. [26 November 2008]

Loreena McKennitt: A Midwinter Night’s Dream

On this Christmas album, the courtliness seems unnecessarily flowery. [25 November 2008]

Hector Zazou & Swara: In the House of Mirrors

Zazou was an eager cross-cultural collaborator. It seems right that his final album should be a cross-cultural collaboration. [18 November 2008]

Sol y Canto: Cada Día un Regalo

Is Sol y Canto looking for a gig at the local suburban shopping centre food court? [17 November 2008]

Genticorum: La Bibournoise

La Bibournoise probably won't dazzle you straight away, but the album has real warmth. [14 November 2008]

Los Cenzontles with David Hidalgo: Songs of Wood & Steel

This album is a worthy experiment that needs more work.

Bio Ritmo: Bionico

Every piece of pop culture wishes it had an audience this charismatic. [11 November 2008]

Abiyou Solomon: In Search of My Roots

Sunny mild-funk brass, breezy keyboard pop, and pan-African guitar, combined with Ethiopian music's usual weird and delicious stagger. [10 November 2008]

Rabih Abou-Khalil: Em Portugues

There's a feeling of power in this album, of adult strength being channeled and directed towards a common goal. [6 November 2008]

Various: The Rough Guide to Colombian Street Party

This is exactly how a party album from a respected world music label should be handled.

Julie Fowlis: Cuilidh

Fowlis has a sure voice, and her light, decisive handling of the songs is pleasant to hear. [29 October 2008]

Frigg: Economy Class

The musicians in Frigg shoot along in tandem, rather than slide eelishly around one another in interlacing patterns, as the members of some other Nordic groups do. [27 October 2008]

The Zydepunks: Finisterre

Finisterre hits a good balance between keeping the music boisterous and genuine-sounding, and leaving it clear enough to be intelligible. [21 October 2008]

Buika: Niña de Fuego

Buika has the right way of sounding drunk yet alert enough to mourn and scorn absent lovers. [15 October 2008]

Seckou Keita Quintet, SKQ: The Silimbo Passage

Attractive Music That Likes You. [14 October 2008]

Davila 666: Davila 666

Davila 666 is a big, fat, gleeful, slappy, smacky, hip-jerking, howling, dumb-as-a-rock-and-proud-of-it garage rock album from Puerto Rico.

Ólafur Arnalds: Eulogy for Evolution

The pathos that runs through both albums is powerful, flexible, something more complex than simple melancholy. [10 October 2008]

Pistolera: En Este Camino

I suppose you can call this a Mexican folk-rock album. [7 October 2008]

Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko: Africa to Appalachia

The kora, with its lacelike and intricate patterns of notes, is the more attention-catching instrument, and you could easily forget that this album is a partnership and start to think of it as a Mansa Sissoko project. [2 October 2008]

Seprewa Kasa: Seprewa Kasa

This album is all soothe and salve, looking back to the heyday of highlife. [1 October 2008]

Sir Victor Uwaifo: Guitar Boy Superstar 1970-1976

This ekassa sits on a borderline between the tightness of West Africa’s acoustic dance bands, and loose-limbed rock. [24 September 2008]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Latin Lounge

This album goes out of its way to avoid "heavy".

Nagisa Ni Te: Yosuga

It’s a fairly pretty album. It’s quite nice. [22 September 2008]

Tagaq: Auk/Blood

Auk/Blood has the feel of a poetry reading, something in a closed theatre, hermetic and impressionistic. [17 September 2008]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of Mali

An album that is paradoxically almost redundant and almost perfect. [9 September 2008]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of the Romanian Gypsies

Romanian Gypsies moves restlessly from one idea to the next, as if it has a dozen itches and wants to scratch each one in turn. [5 September 2008]

Suarasama: Fajar di Atas Awan

Fajar di Atas Awan is an album that cools and balances the brain.

Lia Ices: Necima

Necima's appeal lies in its sweetly-stated strength. [4 September 2008]

Spam Allstars: Introducing Spam Allstars

The songs on this album have a feeling of freedom about them, of unspamlike variety and decompression, as if each one on its own could easily roll on for hours without running out of steam. [28 August 2008]

Funkadesi: Yo Baba

Yo Baba is a reggae-bhangra party album, at least that's how it starts. [26 August 2008]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of Japan

Think of a Rough Guide to the Music of the United States that included blues, Gershwin, a contemporary country singer, one Cajun track, and nothing from any pop star, no rock music of any kind. [22 August 2008]

Hanggai: Introducing Hanggai

Introducing Hanggai is more than an introduction to Hanggai: it could also serve as an introduction to indigenous Mongolian music on the whole, a gateway Mongolian folk album for non-Mongolians. [12 August 2008]

The Garifuna Women’s Project: Umalali

Sofia Blanco comes into Umalali with a salty alertness, strong as iron, pointed as nails, a fierce and mournful sound. [11 August 2008]

Various: The Rough Guide to Australian Aboriginal Music

The Rough Guide to Australian Aboriginal Music is the best all-around single-disc introduction to Aboriginal music available at the moment. [5 August 2008]

Kakande: Dununya

Dununya is the sound of a man taking the tradition he's got and making it larger. [29 July 2008]

Sa Dingding: Alive

Alive is exploratory yet ultimately gentle. It's more daring than most of China's mainstream croon-pop, but similarly unwilling to strike out at its audience. [28 July 2008]

Samantha Crain: The Confiscation

The Confiscation is short but strong, a debut album that seems to promise a solid future career. [25 July 2008]

Various: The Rough Guide to Arabic Café

Listening to the Rough Guide to Arabic Café, I realised that this is not the same as the music you would expect to hear if you were sitting in a Western coffee shop. [23 July 2008]

The Curse of Company: Leo Magnets Joins a Gang

There are pop songs in here but most of them try not to stand out. A vehicle for wistful indie chic. [22 July 2008]

Koenjihyakkei: Hundred Sights of Koenji

For all its musical experiments, the album has the simple appeal of a potboiler novel: it picks up a flag of roaring melodrama and flourishes it rampantly, in triumph. [18 July 2008]

Various Artists: Radio Myanmar (Burma)

It would have been disturbing if Radio Myanmar had taken the same route as Radio Thailand, and made the SPDC junta's propaganda instruments sound deliberately exotic and surprising and fun. [17 July 2008]

Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara: Soul Science

Cross-cultural fusion albums are sometimes criticised for their falseness, but there’s no sense of falseness here, no condescension, simply a set of songs that couldn’t be made in any other way. [11 July 2008]

Various Artists: Living is Hard

Living is Hard is a compilation that deserved to be made, not only because the music is beautiful and worth hearing, but because it offers us a glance into the idea of continuity, of the flow of time. [10 July 2008]

Various: Black Stars

Black Stars is an adeptly compiled hiplife snapshot, giving us a sampling of recent arrivals like Tic Tac, as well as godfather figures such as Reggie Rockstone. [8 July 2008]

Group Doueh: Group Doueh

The songs on Group Doueh were recorded by the group itself, “at home", say the liner notes, “on modest cassette recording equipment". But you don’t need to read the packaging to know that. [2 July 2008]

Isol / Zypce: Sima

Sima argues the existence of an Argentinean pop scene that creates smart and pleasantly eccentric music. [30 June 2008]

Sonantes: Sonantes

A good-humoured album, mild-mannered, laid-back, and enjoyable -- an album without fury or evil thoughts. [23 June 2008]

Various: Bollywood Steel Guitar

The elevator music of India. [12 June 2008]

Asha Bhosle: 75 Years of Asha

There are characteristic Asha touches, those nimble trills and teases, but nothing as ruthlessly energetic as some of the other Asha songs you might have heard. [4 June 2008]

Debashish Bhattacharya: Calcutta Chronicles

This is an excellent disc, one that rewards multiple visits. [3 June 2008]

Various: The Rough Guide to Cuban Street Party

The party atmosphere of Cuban Street Party doesn't rely on remixes, as it did in parts of African Street Party. It doesn't need them. [30 May 2008]

Various: Think Global: Fiesta Latina

Enlightenment has taken a back seat: this is a party album. [27 May 2008]

Various: Think Global: Native America

No group of people should be made to sound this relentlessly nice. [23 May 2008]

Babylon Circus: Dances of Resistance

Footage of the group's live performances shows seas of people shaking their arms, and after listening to Dances of Resistance nothing in that picture feels exaggerated. [14 May 2008]

In Township Tonight! by David B. Coplan

Coplan's work here sometimes sags under the soggy weight of too much praise, but the whole thing is so good that the distraction is forgivable [2 May 2008]

Gaudi + Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Dub Qawwali Remixes

You remix qawwali to make it easier for people who don't want to sit through ten minutes or more of a single song. [25 April 2008]

Le Vent du Nord: Dans Les Airs

Dans Les Airs has the air of a good democracy, a core stability that doesn't stifle the inhabitants. [21 April 2008]

Perunika Trio: Introducing Perunika Trio

Not all of the songs work around the drone and the whip, but it's these yips and yelps that have lingered; the intense sound of high-pitched and precise female explosions. [17 April 2008]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of Hungarian Gypsies

Hungarian Roma music, according to this Rough Guide, has a dancing energy, like a ball always bouncing forward. [28 March 2008]

Étienne Daho: L’invitation

Polished music with streams of semi-formal strings and songs in which the intimacy sounds autobiographical rather than sexy. [27 March 2008]

Fredda: Toutes mes Aventures

These are songs that are made to be enjoyed almost without conscious effort, clever tracks with sticky little choruses that saunter into your head and refuse to go away. [21 March 2008]

Pouya Mahmoodi: Mehr

Mahmoodi has a mild-mannered, steady voice with an elongated lilt and a gentleness that makes him sound as if he’s singing to himself and you happen to be accidentally overhearing him. [18 March 2008]

Bokar Rimpoche: Sacred Chants and Tibetan Rituals from the Monastery of Mirik

The purring groan of the enormous horns and the glittering chimes of the bells are intensely eerie, and then there is the gradual, heaving chant of the massed monks... [12 March 2008]

The Habibiyya: If Man But Knew

There are stylistic touches that suggest Morocco, but if you hadn’t heard the story about their holiday then you’d think they had been inspired by Japan. [6 March 2008]

Toumast: Ishumar

It’s as if ag Keyna has looked back at the work Tinariwen has done, felt that the sound he wanted to build on had already been established, and, with that support behind him, felt free to experiment. [3 March 2008]

Pascal: Galgberget

Galgberget is nothing revolutionary, but it's full of heart and commitment. [27 February 2008]

Arabesque Music Ensemble: The Music of the Three Musketeers

From a marketing point of view, it would have been sensible to call this CD For the Love of Umm Kalthoum, or Umm Kalthoum's Composers or something else with Kalthoum's name in it. But no ... [22 February 2008]

L’Arc~en~Ciel: Kiss

This is pop-rock pushed to a point of such lush and serious melodrama that it almost tips over into camp. [18 February 2008]

Orchestra Ethiopia: Éthiopiques 23

Éthiopiques 23 sits partway between the countryside folk music atmosphere of Éthiopiques 12 and the modern professionalism of an Alèmayèhu Eshèté, between trained singing and artless strum. [14 February 2008]

Brian Grosz: Bedlam Nights

On this album Brian Grosz cultivates an atmosphere of scuzz. [4 February 2008]

Various: The Matinée Hit Parade

The Californian label Matinée loves songs that are jangly, modest in scale, neat in enunciation, tidily formed, and often wistfully expressed. [25 January 2008]

CéU: Remixed EP

Do Brazilian women ever get excited? So many of the ones we hear tend to sigh over us at a wombling Girl-From-Ipanema pace. [11 January 2008]

Various Artists: Ethnic Minority Music of North Vietnam

The music of people who know that they will never be asked to face huge audiences and rarely required to sing to anyone other than themselves and their friends. [10 January 2008]

Various: Melodii Tuvi

Melodii Tuvi is a lesson in contrasts, a remedial class for anyone who thought that all throat singing sounds the same. [3 January 2008]

Various Artists: Black Mirror

Ian Nagoski's selection is culturally broad, taking in Buddhist prayers from Laos, a Portuguese fado recorded in 1927, Irish-American piper folk and a prepubescent Swedish boy warbling over a zither.

Martin Atkins China Dub Soundsystem: Made in China

In effect, Pigface has changed continents and absorbed a few dozen new members. [21 December 2007]

Shark Move: Ghede Chokras

There's something ineffably charming about this unabashed flower-child music with its whales and butterflies, and not even aged source vinyl can ruin it.

Various: The Rough Guide to the Music of Paris

It's as if World Music Network wanted to release a follow-up to their Rough Guide to Paris Café Music but for some reason decided that it wasn't complete without a bit of Putumayo tucked in front of it. [17 December 2007]

Chica and the Folder: Under the Balcony

Chica and the Folder is a kind of new wave electronic boniness warmed over and fleshed out with the kidneys and blood of South America.

Woelv: Tout Seul dans la Forêt en Plein Jour

Tout Seul is an album that had the potential to be pretentious. That it avoids pretension and seems instead intelligent, exploratory, and heartfelt, is a tribute to the musician. [12 December 2007]

Ben Baruch: Ben Baruch

Anyone who has been looking for a loving reissue of some serious Jewish singing need seek no further. [7 December 2007]

Shuta Hasunuma: OK Bamboo

OK Bamboo is a good album to have on while you're doing something else. You can dip in and out of it.

Various: Think Global: World Christmas

More like an adventurous sampler of interesting, sometimes surprising, songs rather than just a Christmas album. [5 December 2007]

Už Jsme Doma: Cod Liver Oil

The simplest way to sum up this album would be to call it art metal. [4 December 2007]

Alèmayèhu Eshèté: Éthiopiques 22

The way he uses his voice sometimes suggests that Elvis would have sounded better in Amharic. [29 November 2007]

Kitka: The Rusalka Cycle

Mention mermaids and your audience might picture magic, Disneyland, and smiling little girls. Kitka is looking for listeners who want a harder version of mythology. [27 November 2007]

Various: Music of Nat Pwe

Despite the piercing oboes and the clashing of gongs, the music on Music of Nat Pwe is sweet and catchy at heart. [20 November 2007]

Various: Porque Este Océano es el Tuyo, es el Mío

This album, its mouthful of a title borrowed from Pablo Neruda, is a compilation of indie pop tracks from South and Central America. [19 November 2007]

The Real Tuesday Weld: The London Book of the Dead

The landscape of Coates's songs is the size of a shoebox diorama. [15 November 2007]

Taraf de Haïdouks: Maškaradă

With the fan base they've built up over the past two decades, the members of Taraf de Haïdouks could have gone on reworking past successes forever like a Roma Rolling Stones. [13 November 2007]

Alejandro Franov: Khali

Alejandro Franov helps Juana Molina with her albums. On Khali he uses instruments that imitate the flowing sound of water, rain, or rivers.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Segu Blue

If Kouyaté is trying to turn himself into the Diabaté of the ngoni, an innovator who takes ancient instruments and tunes and moves them forward, then he's going about it in the right way. [12 November 2007]

Bi Kidude: Zanzibara 4 / Various: Zanzibara 3

Zanzibara 3 is Afro-retro comfort food, hot soup for chilly evenings. Zanzibara 4 asks more from you. [8 November 2007]

Various: The Rough Guide to the Music of Brazil

The genius of Brazil, according to Armstrong's collection, is intricate and involved, often backed by hard percussion but profoundly light. [5 November 2007]

Puerto Plata: Mujer de Cabaret.

Not like the Cuban music familiar to Buena Vista fans but brisker, tangier, rougher, more earthy. [31 October 2007]

Toni Iordache: Sounds from a Bygone Age Vol. 4

It's not easy for a cimbalom to draw the spotlight in an ensemble but Iordache had the skill to take centre stage and pull it off. [26 October 2007]

Various: Think Global: Women of Africa

Anyone who has had more than a passing acquaintance with the African part of their music store's World section is going to find most of this familiar territory.

Columbiafrica - The Mystic Orchestra: Voodoo Love Inna Champeta Land

Complex without being confusing, a brilliant Frankenmixture that sounds completely natural. [25 October 2007]

Aroah: El Día Después

The music seems to look inward, as if the singer is addressing herself before considering us, but it doesn't have the fierce self-absorption or the lack of humour that the word 'intensity' can suggest.

Various: Caravan of Light

Mystic woodwind, sitars, Buddhist chants, Tibetans, yearning voices -- if it sounds like New Age territory, well, it is.

Various: The Rough Guide to Salsa Clandestina

Lesser-known, less commercial, more diverse Latin music that still holds to some traditions like the clave beat, but also bears the mark of more underground or alternative strains. [23 October 2007]

Various: The Rough Guide to Latin Funk

The music on The Rough Guide to Latin Funk is, exactly as it says on the box, Latin Funk. [19 October 2007]

Various: The Rough Guide to Latino Nuevo

Music that is "exciting, innovative" and identifiably Latino. [18 October 2007]

Wayne Gorbeas Salsa Picante: Introducing Wayne Gorbeas Salsa Picante

In this compilation dedicated to the work of salsa pianist Wayne Gorbea, Salsa is the focus but there are also excursions into rumba and mambo. [17 October 2007]

Saba: Jidka

Saba Anglana's debut album is both a likeable set of songs and canny piece of Euro-Afro feelgoodery. [16 October 2007]

Various: Think Global: Salsa

Think Global: Salsa is a solid, reliable compilation for anyone who wants an album that will cheer them up and not ever sound like anything they don't already imagine salsa to be. [15 October 2007]

Extra Golden: Hera Ma Nono

When I heard about the struggle Extra Golden went through to get their first album done, I didn't seriously think they would make a second one. [8 October 2007]

Various: Add to Friends

Like a sweet little ant that you don't want to step on. [5 October 2007]

Tenniscoats: Totemo Aimasho

A nice, soft, warm bowl of heart food

Circo: Cursi

Cursi, the band's third album and their Sony debut, is one of those CDs that wants to be your best friend for a season and then give way to something else equally uplifting and ginseng-infused. [4 October 2007]

Various: The Rough Guide to Flamenco

Passion in a tidier form... that's flamenco for you. [1 October 2007]

Various: The Roots of Chicha

The Roots of Chicha jogs along on a wave of good humour, jaunty male singing, and an overall vibe of pride and pleasure. [25 September 2007]

Various: Thai Pop Spectacular

You might be able to file Thai Pop Spectacular away on the Wacky shelf, but the thrilling stab of Thai Country Groove is less easily dismissed. [20 September 2007]

Oliver Mtukudzi: Tsimba Itsoka

He’d be the man who sets a hand on your arm, telling you, “People should be decent to one another,” and you’d know that he wasn’t saying it just to make small talk. [19 September 2007]

Zap Mama: Supermoon

Despite her obvious admiration for US hip-hop, Daulne's music-making spirit has always been more French than North American. [13 September 2007]

Various: Gypsy Caravan

The album is crammed. It’s a packed smorgasbord. [10 September 2007]

Bob Brozman Orchestra: Lumière

There is no Orchestra. Lumière is what happens when a virtuoso decides to enjoy himself. [7 September 2007]

Nawal: Aman

In a world that celebrates pop music youth, this woman sings with the dignity of an adult. [30 August 2007]

Various: World Hits

It's the album you'd buy if you were around in the '80s and found yourself yearning to hear "Lambada" again. [29 August 2007]

Aly Bain and Ale Möller: Beyond the Stacks

Like many sequels, it gives you more of the same but you don't mind at all because you enjoyed everything so much the first time around that you didn't really want it to change. [28 August 2007]

Väsen: Linnaeus Väsen

The three string musicians are all as good as they were on Live in Japan, yet I like this album less. [21 August 2007]

Hans Appelqvist: Sifantin Och Mörkret

A modest pragmatist's view of wonderment. [10 August 2007]

Nedelle: The Locksmith Cometh

Nedelle's simple singer-songwriter style invites us to put her in the company of other singer-songwriters who have sung simply. [2 August 2007]

Kenge Kenge: Introducing… Kenge Kenge

In their explosiveness they're closer to David Fanshawe's field recordings of East African rural music, the hooting bung'o horn and so forth, than the tidier benga from Shirati Jazz. [1 August 2007]

Oreskaband: Oreskaband

As if half of Morning Musume had decided to pick up trombones and start covering Toots and the Maytals. [27 July 2007]

Son de la Frontera: Cal

Here, fusion spritzes flamenco without changing it in any fundamental way.

Sarolta Zalatnay: Sarolta Zalatnay

Ultimate, absolute, utter gusto would need more waaaaaow! but the gusto she's got is great. [25 July 2007]

Lunabee: Prenez Garde Aux Flots Bleus

A small, unexplained, perhaps inexplicable object. [19 July 2007]

Papa Noel: Café Noir

Papa Noel's songs sound even more Cuban than you would expect from the doyen of a music scene inspired by Cubans. [18 July 2007]

Various: Colombia!

The album almost giggles with verve. [16 July 2007]

Erol Josué: Régléman

There's a gravity to Régeléman that becomes immediately deepened and explicable when you realise that the Haitian singer is being religious. [9 July 2007]

Dobet Gnahoré: Na Afriki

It's disappointing to discover that Cumbancha's latest release is an album that asks to be tossed in the "Africans With Nice Voices Singing Nice Songs" drawer. [26 June 2007]

Islaja: Ulual YYY

It no longer feels like a jungle that I have to wander through, admiring but mute, eyes wide, dumbfounded by crackles and squeaks. [22 June 2007]

Various: Merdeka

Merdeka is a superior example of a charity comp; it doesn't leave you thinking that the compilers have tossed it carelessly together just to raise money. [19 June 2007]

Various Artists: Le Pop 4

A Gigi of an album: a voluptuous and innocent charmer from France. [18 June 2007]

Forro in the Dark: Asa Branca

None of the mixes are bad, none are exceptionally good, they're just sort of there. [14 June 2007]

My Sister Klaus: Chateau Rouge

Chateau Rouge has the kind of underground attitude that leaves an album vibrating with its own buzzy kick, but here the buzz never consolidates itself in a climax. [11 June 2007]

Hauschka: Versions of the Prepared Piano

To really love it I'd have to enjoy Tarwater's "World of Things to Touch" as much as I like "Para Bien" and I don't, I can't.

Somi: Red Soil in My Eyes

Red Soil is worth checking out, even if soft jazz is not usually your thing. [6 June 2007]

Benni Hemm Hemm: Kajak

That professional-amateur sound Hermannson is aiming for can be a tricky thing to perfect. [4 June 2007]

American Bhangra: American Bhangra

The title is an overstatement and the cover design is ordinary but underneath the clumsy packaging thumps the heart of a very good debut bhangra album. [14 May 2007]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Bollywood Gold

The Rough Guide to Bollywood Gold manages to be a solid contribution to a swelling genre without ever feeling like an essential disc. [11 May 2007]

Burbuja: Burbuja

A distant aural cousin to the scenes in the garden at the start of Blue Velvet. [10 May 2007]

Benjamin Escoriza: Alevanta!

After listening to Alevanta! it's easy to think of this as the fifth Radio Tarifa album that never was. [8 May 2007]

Various Artists: Desert Roses 4

It's a compilation from the World Music Middle East rather than the wholly Middle Eastern Middle East. [30 April 2007]

Oojami: Boom Shinga Ling

Even his firmest piece of dance has silk ribbons of Turkish folk music wriggling through it. [17 April 2007]

Turbo Tabla: The Belly and the Beat

Nagi reworks his own raw material and the result is tight and natural. [16 April 2007]

Tujiko Noriko: Solo

This is an album for people who like pop's chirpiness but distrust its obviousness. [12 April 2007]

Slavic Soul Party: Teknochek Collision

Accordions and brass instruments came out and everyone bounced robustly around. [2 April 2007]

Num9: The Glow-worms Resistance

I read the press kit and then listen to the CD and feel as if I'm missing something. [26 March 2007]

Christina Rosenvinge: Continental 62

Like many singer-songwriters, she has misgivings about love and partnerships. [22 March 2007]

Breadfoot feat. Anne Phoebe: Tea with Leo

New York-based Breadfoot picks at his banjo and six-strong Dobro like a country boy. [21 March 2007]

Tinariwen: Aman Iman

Tinariwen plays rock guitar with a rangy American sound, broad and lazy and slow. [16 March 2007]

The Crayon Fields: Animal Bells

The Crayon Fields makes pop that hangs around like a dense mist, opaque but ultimately diffuse. [15 March 2007]

Nanny Assis: Double Rainbow

Double Rainbow is an album of easygoing covers leavened with a few original compositions by Brazillian Nanny Assis and his friends. [14 March 2007]

Ranarim: Morning Star

The apple-cheeked bounce of a hopped-up village green. [8 March 2007]

The Hermit Crabs: Feel Good Factor EP

The Hermit Crabs is a Glasgow band that plays whispery, loving twee-pop. [28 February 2007]

Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective: Wátina

After years spent turning himself into Belize's most successful punta rock star), Palacio has simplified his music down to an almost completely acoustic style

Z: Mikabe

It's the music of fits and starts: a grunt, a strum, a scream, a honk, a hoot, an eruption into noise, a retreat into guitar-whine. [27 February 2007]

Good Shoes: The Photos on My Wall EP

Good Shoes' Britpop has the smacky, slapping rhythm of 1970s punk. [26 February 2007]

Ballaké Sissoko: Tomora

Mali's kora is an aristocratic instrument and Djelimoussa Ballaké Sissoko is one of the expert players.

Omar Souleyman: Highway to Hassake

It's music for clapping your hands and whirling to, music for mass, messy, male bounce-fests. [15 February 2007]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of South Africa

The township dip-and-heave rhythm that runs through most of these tracks, sometimes blatantly, sometimes subtly, unites them, making this one of the more coherent Rough Guides. [9 February 2007]

Idan Raichel: The Idan Raichel Project

When The Idan Raichel Project first arrived in my mailbox last year I was trying to think of ten albums that I could put in a list to mark the end of 2006 and I liked this one so much that I almost included it. [5 February 2007]

Marina Rossell: Vistas al Mar

It's as if the singer's emotions have been locked inside a box, and she has to speak pleasantly, otherwise the guards will never give them back to her. [1 February 2007]

La Cumbiamba eNeYé: Marioneta

This is no straight Latin American party album... it's more various and less hit-fixated than that. [25 January 2007]

Bole2Harlem Volume 1

The press kit describes Bole2Harlem's sound as the work of a group of friends from different countries who like to get together in the same club and jam, and that collective neighbourliness has rubbed off on the songs. [11 January 2007]

Selda Bağcan: Selda

If you're a fan of Turkish 1970s psychedelic music, then 2006 was a good year. [8 January 2007]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Yodel

By the end we're left in no doubt that Plantega sees American yodelling as the most significant yodelling on the planet, and while this is going to leave people from other parts of the world feeling ignored, at least it means that we get to hear a good selection of cowboy songs. [4 January 2007]

Saborit: Que Linda Es Mi Cuba

This tres guitar has the sharpest metallic jangle you can imagine, and the claves knock like knuckles on a hollow door. [2 January 2007]

Ariesta Birawa Group: Vol. 1, Indonesia

Ariesta Birawa Group sounds moderately-paced, good-humoured, and more conservative than the Beatles. [22 December 2006]

Hoven Droven: Jumping at the Cedar

Tune after tune rises and rears and smashes down, coming to rest here and there in the calm pools of "Kom Hem" and "Årepolska". [18 December 2006]

Sally Nyolo and the Original Bands of Yaoundé: Studio Cameroon

Some of these musicians seem to be the equivalent of those local groups that play at the pub down the road. [15 December 2006]

Boom Pam: Boom Pam

Boom Pam has a way of taking old music and juicing it with new ingredients, finding a twist, an angle, that brings it to life and makes the audience forget that it's old. [12 December 2006]

Darko Rundek and Cargo Orkestar: Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da

It can be blaring, cynical, adult -- sometimes harsh, but also rueful-sweet with a controlled undercurrent of idealistic humanity. [7 December 2006]

Mustafa Ozkent: Gençlik Ile Elele

Ozkent was a nationalist, but he blends his Turkish folk influences so perfectly into the modernity of the psyche-jazz-funk that you might not even notice them. [1 December 2006]

Various Artists: Electric Gypsyland 2

Electric Gypsyland 2 is a good sequel: a playful, explorative sequel that takes the basic idea from its predecessor and uses it as a foundation, not a restriction. [29 November 2006]

Les Primitifs du Futur: World Musette

World Musette could use less world and more musette. [28 November 2006]

The Master Musicians of Joujouka: Boujeloud

The thumping of the drums is so relentless that it seems to be trying to beat you down and drown you in a state of pre-consciousness. [19 November 2006]

Eglantine Gouzy: Boamaster

Boamaster feels like an enticing pre-sexual tease, centred on cocoons, secrecy, and a dark, faintly threatening, aura of childishness. [16 November 2006]

Dona Dumitru Siminică: Sounds From a Bygone Age Vol. 3

He sounds like a mature 30- or 40-something alto woman armed with the mournful fatalism of a second Coleridge contemplating the albatross.

Malena Pérez: Stars

Stars is a celebratory album, and also a happy one. Singing, "What if I told you that you're beautiful? / Would you believe?" Pérez sounds sincerely interested in the answer. [13 November 2006]

Fiamma Fumana: Onda

Onda is listener-friendly, but it could do with some yelling louts to bring the niceness into sharper relief.

Tartit: Abacabok

Comparisons between Tartit and the better-known Tinariwen seem inevitable, but, really, there's no reason why one should be confused with the other, or why you shouldn't like both in different ways. [9 November 2006]

Inquiet: Yé-Yé Bears

Which genre does this belong to? Naif-noise?

Chamellows: Rat Hearts

It's the sound of decay, and of deliberate destruction; it's the musical equivalent of those artworks for which the artist draws a picture and then scribbles over it, or piles up an assemblage of rubbish and branches. [7 November 2006]

Various Artists: Live at the Cedar

All of the tracks were recorded at Cedar concerts and none of them sound as if they've been thrown in just to get a famous name on the cover. [6 November 2006]

Shugo Tokumaru: L.S.T.

Tokumaru is a musical Philosopher's Stone; he transmutes even chickens into gold. [1 November 2006]

Dýrðin: Dýrðin

Are they a band to fall in love with? Only if you also love the toys that come out of vending machines -- no, not the cheap rubber balls and wobbly snakes, but the ones that have had some thought put into them. [31 October 2006]

Golem: Fresh off Boat

Punk is too strong a word for this band. The singers shout and wail, and the instruments sometimes leap into high gear, but their thrashing isn't angry punk thrashing. They're not rebels. [27 October 2006]

Various Artists: From Bakabush

You could almost forgive Stonetree if From Bakabush sounded amateurish and the songs were shaky and ragged. Instead, the label has put together an album that serves as both an introduction to the label and a superbly enjoyable invitation to the region's music as a whole.

Hisato Higuchi: Dialogue

There's a delicacy here that you suspect would be violated by anything so vulgar as a lyric. [26 October 2006]

Benni Hemm Hemm: Benni Hemm Hemm

As a reminder of the intrepid, home-made spirit of much Icelandic music and the varied uses to which folk can be put, it's an interesting CD to have around.

Band Ane: Anish Music

Ane Oestergaard is restless and inquisitive and can't leave things alone -- she's compelled to fiddle. [25 October 2006]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to West African Gold

For someone who wants to hear a good sampler that includes enough of the essentials to keep a newcomer informed, but doesn't retread tunes that will bore old-timers, The Rough Guide to West African Gold hits the nail on the head. [23 October 2006]

Rodrigo y Gabriela: Rodrigo y Gabriela

The album is a slap in the face for every rock star who has ever decided to arrange acoustic versions of their songs and forgotten that "acoustic" doesn't necessarily mean "slow and boring". [20 October 2006]

Rumen and Angel Shopov: Soul of the Mahala

Soul of the Mahala sits between the conservatory and the ghetto. It's music from the wrong side of the tracks played with technical proficiency and respect. [10 October 2006]

Hazmat Modine: Bahamut

Bahamut is old New York huckster showmanship, hopping with exaggeration and bravura; it's also a cross-cultural collaboration, a celebration of pre-1950s American musical pop culture, and a polished piece of work. [9 October 2006]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Bachata

It's nice to see bachata being given space to show off its strengths away from the shadow of its attention-grabbing neighbour, merengue. [4 October 2006]

Nina Nastasia: On Leaving

On Leaving might as well be called On Ageing and Disillusionment. [2 October 2006]

Zukanican: Horse Republic

Horse Republic is not the album to play if you're feeling hungover. [27 September 2006]

Leichtmetall: Wir Sind Blumen

It's too fey and reticent for pop, and too hooky to be simply atmospheric. [25 September 2006]

El Aviador Dro: Eléctrico!: The Best of Aviador Dro 1978 - 2006

Storied Spanish synth-pop techno band remains a mystery, despite this first US release. [21 September 2006]

Lataye: Tou Manbre

Mellow, reggae-influenced, Haitian Afro-rock with touches of old-school electric guitar and keyboard. [20 September 2006]

Kad: Société

You can thake the French ex-pat out of his home, but you can't take the home out of his music. [19 September 2006]

Maneja Beto: Accidentes de Longitud y Latitud

Manejo Beto proves that too many ideas can wind up being too much of a potentially good thing. [18 September 2006]

Various Artists: Panama!

Panama! doesn't have the feeling of infinite riches that compilations from larger countries such as Brazil sometimes achieve, but it's still a solid effort.

Lady & Bird: Lady & Bird

Twee angst from a French-Icelandic duo manages to be just interesting enough to avoid saccharine over-indulgence. [15 September 2006]

Salif Keita: M’Bemba

On its own terms, M'Bemba has some good moments, but if it didn't have The Voice sending out its goosepimple power then I'd be more dismissive of it.

Gomma Workshop: Cantina Tapes

Italian Surrealist Cartoon Music for the Soul. [13 September 2006]

The Little Ones: Sing Song EP

The Little Ones prove to be impressive without being overly distinctive, trading challenges for talented execution. [11 September 2006]

Various Artists: Free the P

Consciousness rap goes international in a effort to spotlight the plight of Palestine. [8 September 2006]

Los Abandoned: Mix Tape

Los Abandoned come up with chorus hooks that teach themselves to you like a natural instinct. I was singing along before the album had reached the end of the first song.

Nicki Jaine: Live

Cabaret vocalist mixes up sultry, surreal modernity with traditional numbers for great effect. [7 September 2006]

JPP: Artology

Artology is not radically different from JPP's earlier releases, but the group is, as always, reliably excellent. [6 September 2006]

Bombadil: Bombadil

Bombadil is nothing earth-shattering, but it's a very happy way to spend 20 minutes of your time. [5 September 2006]

Various Artists: Voyces United For UNHCR

Benefit album to aid the UN Refugee Agency goes slightly awry... [30 August 2006]

Lovejoy: England Made Me EP

A faded fin de siècle sunniness sustained by a wall of spangled keyboard hum and series of ascending chords and notes that wash over you in waves. [29 August 2006]

Sila And The Afrofunk Experience: Funkiest Man In Africa

Funkiest Man In Africa is so glad to be alive, someone should start a cult around it. [16 August 2006]

Various Artists: Confuzed Disco

A generous spread of music, some of it still with its hints-of-the-'70s flavour intact, but much of it remixed recently by contemporary DJs who have streamlined the old sounds and made them pump and thump.

Electric Lights Flashing Very Fast: Let There Be Lights EP

Electric Lights Flashing Very Fast is a talented group of thunderers, well able to wind up their music and send it bursting over you in jellied, semi-psychedelic waves. [15 August 2006]

Various Artists: Ethnic Minority Music of Northeast Cambodia

I can't tell you whether this album is better or worse than other recordings of northeastern Cambodian animist tribes, because, to be honest, it's the first one I've heard, and for all I know it's the only one available. [14 August 2006]

Various Artists: Radio Thailand

It switches rapidly from one sound to another as if the listener is wandering down a street catching brief snatches of radio from different doorways. [11 August 2006]

Lulendo: Angola

Angola doesn't often produce international musicians, but when it does, then they're usually worth the wait. [9 August 2006]

The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band: Take One

Other compilers might provide us with overviews of famous names, but only a fan is going to put this much love into showcasing bands that would otherwise have been nothing but footnotes to the English-speaking world. [7 August 2006]

Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan (2006)

The audience is in the position of an uninformed observer; like a tourist who wanders in... doesn't the language, just drifts around... sometimes feeling thrilled, occasionally feeling bored. [2 August 2006]

Edip Akbayram: Edip Akbayram

In Edip Akbayram's mouth, the dreamy, hopeful sunshine of hippie psychedelica has merged with a dramatic lament.

Presents The Songs of Sheikh Sayyed Darweesh ‘The Soul of a People’

Sheikh Sayyed Darweesh (nationalist, opera-lover, maker of rhythmic drag) gets a well-deserved showcase. [31 July 2006]

Al-Andalus: Alchemy

And yet, as the album went on, I began to realise that there was something of substance here... [28 July 2006]

Think of One: Tráfico

Musical collectives are often hit and miss, but Think of One hits far more often than it misses. [21 July 2006]

Chavela Vargas: At Carnegie Hall

You might think that the people in this audience are idiots for cheering at a raspy voice. You might prefer raw, bitey, old Vargas to young Vargas. You might not know what to think. [14 July 2006]

Pedro Luis Ferrer: Natural

The album of an honest man, who works without tricks or promises or loud bangs. [10 July 2006]

Elvy Sukaesih: The Dangdut Queen

Sukaesih's pop songs sit sweetly at the intersection of the Islamic religion that most of Indonesia's population follows, and the Hindi films they love to watch. [13 June 2006]

TV-Resistori: Serkut Rakastaa Paremmin

In its smart lumpiness, it has the same appeal as those ugly-adorable vinyl monster toys made for adult collectors. [9 June 2006]

Various: Turkish Groove

I want shine. I want bubblegum shine. I want beautiful men and handsome women. [6 June 2006]

Romica Puceanu and The Gore Brothers: Sounds From A Bygone Age: Vol. 2

Romica Puceanu never made a name for herself outside Romania, which is fine for the Romanians but harsh on the rest of us. We've been missing out. [26 May 2006]

Boban Markovic Orkestar feat. Marko Markovic: The Promise: The King of Balkan Brass

The solo flugelhorns are exciting, but it's the sound of the group that brings the album together. [25 May 2006]

Various Artists: Paris

It's music to make you feel good, or, at least, 'good' in the modest sense of leaving you sleepy and smiling and disinclined to do wrong. [22 May 2006]

Kal: Kal

The band vivifies their traditional music with boings and booming echoes, wah-wah pedals, tango, and konakkol singing. [17 May 2006]

Extra Golden: Ok-Oyot System

There were three reasons why I wanted to love this album... [9 May 2006]

Storsveit Nix Noltes: Orkideur Hawai

Storsveit Nix Noltes are the sweatiest and most rambunctious non-Bulgarian Bulgarian group around. [5 May 2006]

Juana Molina: Son

The sun is warm and we're both intelligent people. Let's have some fun. [4 May 2006]

The Green Arrows: 4-Track Recording Session

If you told me that this is a perfect representation of the band as they were during the 1970s, I'd believe you without a qualm. [3 May 2006]

Gecko Turner: Guapapasea!

He's so cool that he can groan, "How come you do me like you do me?" and sound as if he's saying something meaningful, even intriguing. [24 April 2006]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Flamenco Nuevo

Some compilations summarize a genre. This one makes it look larger than you expected. [21 April 2006]

Abidin Ensemble: From The Day I Was Tossed Here: A Tribute to the Poetry of Nazim Hikmet

Victoria Serruya finds a fine line between grand formality and genuine emotion, while Yaghi Malka and Ehud Gerlich drone thoughtfully on the double-bass and cello, and Oren Fried taps a slow-paced drum. [19 April 2006]

Various Artists: Dada, Pansaers et Correspondance; Volume 1 (1917-1926)

Meet James Ensor. Meet the people who came after him. But first, learn French. [18 April 2006]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of Tanzania

It's an entire music store in a single album. Or something like that. [11 April 2006]

Black Ox Orkestar: Nisht Azoy

Black Ox Orkestar bring a darkly serious tone to the world of folk music. [7 April 2006]

Womadelaide Festival

The grass did its best to stand up to a weekend of dancing, but in patches we killed it, leaving its blades to dry out in the heat and turn to fine hay. [31 March 2006]

Nuru Kane: Sigil

You've heard it before? Then listen to it again. [17 March 2006]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Music of Israel

There's more to Israel than bombs and bad news. [16 March 2006]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Urban Latino

A good mixture of anger, pop, and energy, with one surprise. [13 March 2006]

Devics: Push the Heart

With four albums already behind them, Sara Lov and Dustin O'Halloran use Push The Heart to gather themselves together and plan for the future. [10 March 2006]

Samite: Embalasasa

Embalasasa is an album of warm, kind singing with a warm, kind flute and warm, kind drums. [27 February 2006]

Various: Congotronics

Six new bands help Konono No. 1 expand the sound of the Congo street aesthetic. [16 February 2006]

Gregor Samsa: 55:12

Gregor Samsa create long, moody indie-ambient landscapes in which occasional monsters spring out at you. [15 February 2006]

Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys: Dominos

Dominos draws the living and the dead together in a jaunty two-step strut. [9 February 2006]

Ian Anderson: Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull [DVD + CD]

For a non-Tull Tull, it's a good Tull, but hardly an essential Tull. [8 February 2006]

Thandiswa: Zabalaza

A honeyed solo debut from one of South Africa's well-loved female singers. [6 February 2006]

Zulya and The Children of The Underground: The Waltz

Zulya's voice is as silvery as ever, but now she has a better band, and racier, more multilayered tunes. [1 February 2006]

Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose: Set Luna

Set Luna is an album of serene, sweet-natured flamenco with a strong West African twist. [26 January 2006]

Väsen: Live In Japan

Väsen crosses the formal skill of a chamber orchestra with the dynamism of a folk band and comes up with a wonderful live recording. [25 January 2006]

Motion Trio: Play-Station

There are not many experimental accordion groups who take their musical cues from arcade games. Motion Trio do it with inventiveness and technical skill. [23 January 2006]

Ion Petre Stoican: Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 1

Asphalt Tango does a great job of reissuing this Romanian violinist's only album, a 1977 LP with a terrific backing band and arrangements by a 'cimbalom god'. [19 January 2006]

Various Artists: Sound of the World

The latest instalment in Charlie Gillett's series of annual world music round-ups is a mixed bag of favourites, imperfect but interesting, an appetite-whetter. [18 January 2006]

Amadou and Mariam, Dimanche À Bamako

Their collaboration with Manu Chao brings the good parts of all three musicians together in wonderful ways. [17 January 2006]

Gangbé Brass Band: Whendo

Gangbé Brass Band sound like a group of men leading a parade down the road with streamers flying over their heads and the sun shining. [16 January 2006]

Gangbé Brass Band: Whendo

Gangbé Brass Band sound like a group of men leading a parade down the road with streamers flying over their heads and the sun shining.

Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars: Carnival Conspiracy

Frank London and his Klezmer Brass Allstars marry klezmer music with carnival exuberance, farting, fruity tubas, Rabelais, and shouts of ah-ha!" [9 January 2006]

Les Yeux Noirs: tChorba

Back with their sixth album, Les Yeux Noirs turn 'Eastern European, Jewish, gypsy... and rock music', into a friendly, polished blend. [4 January 2006]

Frigg: Oasis

Frigg is a fiddle group, first and foremost, and their fiddles are not the dark fiddles or rock fiddles or mystic fiddles that you might find on other Northside releases, no, these are dancing fiddles. [21 December 2005]

Blogs

Re:Print: Lovesong by Elizabeth Jolley [21 September 2009]

Re:Print: Bible Readings for the Home Circle [27 August 2009]

Re:Print: Miss MacIntosh, My Darling [28 April 2009]

Re:Print: Ann Radcliffe [19 September 2008]

Re:Print: In appreciation: Bruno Schulz [2 October 2007]

Re:Print: The great Christina Stead [24 September 2007]

Re:Print: In appreciation: The Book of Disquiet [22 August 2007]

Re:Print: Author appreciation: Henry Treece [13 August 2007]

Short Ends and Leader: Depth of Field: Big Girls and Little Heroes [20 June 2007]