Loose Ends cultivated an art in supreme sophistication with their groundbreaking experiments in British soul and R&B during the '80s. Decades later, their music remains as potent as it was when it first graced the airwaves and clubs of both the UK and US.
Owiny Sigoma Band is less dazzling than albums that construct themselves around cresting horns, monumental voices and a series of climaxes and dramas. The charm of it lives in its corduroy texture.
This is one of the best DVD releases of the year. It's so substantial, and so thorough, that it becomes not so much a DVD collection as a small, single-subject library of film.
On his fifth release, late-bloomer Tom McRae continues to search for the same magic that brought him into UK acoustic-folk singer spotlight ten years ago.
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.