Music-review

Hoe-down fiddles, the rhythmic rattle of spoons and kazoos with some banjos marking time, and you could be – where? A fictive Appalachian town? Some 1930s travelling music show?…

Folk music, as Empire and Love shows so well, is a music that has a grounding in both past and present, both populist and political.…

An intimate album with the space for real spontaneity…

Assembled under the artistic directorship of Victor Gama, Tsikaya is a superb example of how music is rooted in the society it comes from.…

The best books, music & films of 2009 as reviewed by NI.…

Low whistle, hornpipes, kaval (this is a traditional Balkan flute) and practice chanter (and this a part of the Scots bagpiping set-up) are just a few of the instruments employed by Fraser Fifield on Stereocanto.…

Mysterious and opulent in its songs, The Sky and the Caspian Sea is a début album that exudes confidence and poise and promises the start of a great future.…

Hiphop fans make a virtue of telling it how it is…

It’s a dance record galvanized for the groove; it’s a John Pirozzi film that takes a serious responsibility for the band’s material and details commitment to Cambodian heroes.…

An album with a range of references stretching from a lazy Delta blues to the yearnings of Urdu devotionals…