by Joel Dwek | Feb 28, 2022 | Reviews, Top Picks
This behemoth rap record masterfully combines a whole range of genres into hip-hop, while retaining a firm worldview Events, dear boy. That phrase is British prime minister Harold Macmillan’s most well-known saying, and maybe the most succinct way to describe what it...
by Joel Dwek | Feb 16, 2022 | Reviews
Liberia’s only funk rock band Kapingbdi dazzle on this album which remained hidden away for decades… During the course searching for a studio album from each country, Liberia began to achieve a reputation between us at NoiseNomad for being something of a...
by Joel Dwek | Jan 6, 2022 | Reviews
Putting his own spin on both electronic music and the folk traditions of Niger, Hama has created an singular album that is all his own Niger is often associated musically with the tishoumaren scene (also known as desert blues) that has grown popular especially in the...
by Joel Dwek | Oct 27, 2021 | Reviews
Soul Detergent is well-made indie rock, with psychedelic influences. Or is it something more?… Though rock music is a foundational genre for me – I wouldn’t be writing this if, on a bus journey on a school trip to Spain, a friend hadn’t played me The Beatles on...
by Joel Dwek | Aug 5, 2021 | Reviews
Stereossauro’s electronic beats meet the passion and saudade of fado in this entertaining melange of an album… We don’t often consider the artwork of an album as necessarily integral to the album itself, though it often is. It is always some kind of...
by Danny Wiser | Jul 6, 2021 | Reviews
Wintry sounds abound in this confident debut album from Riit that takes Inuk music to electro pop… Born in a tiny village in the windswept frozen tundra of Canada’s newest, largest, and most sparsely populated territory named Nunavut, Riit’s debut album is a...
by Danny Wiser | May 31, 2021 | Reviews
A cracking debut album by BfolkMuzik680 showcases a talented young hip-hop artist with depth and heart… Whilst one of the mantras on our project has been to give each country and artist ‘their fair due’, we cannot pretend that when it comes to discovering albums...
by Joel Dwek | May 25, 2021 | Reviews
Daði Freyr creates retro pop with a funky disco beat – it’s fun, but is it enough?… The day before I sat down to write this, Icelandic musician and knitwear enthusiast Daði Freyr and his band Gagnamagnið have just lost the Eurovision song contest....
by Joel Dwek | Apr 30, 2021 | Reviews
Taking afro-soul to a new level, Faith Mussa’s idiosyncratic style and innovative form allows this album to surprise as well as entertain… Known as Malawi’s one-man electronic band, Faith Mussa’s style of mixing traditional African rhythms and beats with...
by Joel Dwek | Apr 2, 2021 | Reviews
Breaking through boundaries in multiple senses, the Zimbabwean musician and singer shines a light on feminist issues in her native country Whatever else you may think about Hope Masike’s 2019 album, it is undeniable that it has a very mysterious and evocative title....
by Joel Dwek | Mar 28, 2021 | Reviews
Combining their fearsome talents with New Orleans-based musicians, Lakou Mizik aim to highlight musical links to the US, while also challenging assumptions about Haiti and its culture… The nation of Haiti has a fascinating history that is compelling by turns...
by Danny Wiser | Mar 19, 2021 | Reviews
The Minyo Crusaders are the vanguard of the restoration of a noble Japanese music tradition by way of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America… It is not often that an album leaves me stumped about how to start a review; when that happens it is usually because of...
by Joel Dwek | Mar 18, 2021 | Reviews
Synths, industrial beats, smart production – it’s electro, but not as we know it My first impressions of Saudi Arabia-based electronic music producer MSYLMA’s debut album Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum were that it is immediately attention-grabbing and...
by Joel Dwek | Jan 15, 2021 | Reviews
A legacy of the Vietnam War, Saigon Soul Revival appropriate a Western genre whilst adding a wonderful Vietnamese twist… In some respects, the very idea of Vietnamese soul music seems unusual. Vietnam in the Western consciousness is usually solely recalled in...
by Joel Dwek | Oct 2, 2020 | Reviews
Inventive electronic music that combines ambient, funk, rock, and so much more, beluga stone consistently surprise in this eclectic effort… Poland, as a country, is perhaps most famous in the music world for producing the famed pianist and composer Frédéric...
by Joel Dwek | Sep 12, 2020 | Reviews
Classical crossover pop with operatic influences, iD shows a different side to Kazakh music… Kazakhstan is a central Asian state, a former part of the Soviet Union, and that is where I suspect most people’s knowledge about the nation begins and ends. Rather...
by Danny Wiser | Aug 30, 2020 | Reviews
This electronic album, whilst fun and upbeat, could also be enjoyed as Nicola Cruz’s ethnographic tour of the spiritual hotspots of planet Earth… The Andes as a region is famed for its indigenous people’s spiritual cosmology and their belief in the sacred...
by Danny Wiser | Jul 16, 2020 | Reviews, Top Picks
The punky polyglot produces musical poetry; simultaneously playful and political… Rachid Taha’s final album, Je Suis Africain, was released a year after his tragic passing. Yet, even after his death his message remains pertinent, and his boisterous, cheeky...
