Bedouin Soundclash Mass Easy Star/Mr. Bongo/Sony Canada Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair are back with the first Bedouin Soundclash album since 2010’s Light The Horizon. I’m not going to say it was worth the wait – a decade is a long [...]
Common Let Love Loma Vista Recordings Actor, author, motivational speaker, and rapper Common showcases his positive attitude by examining all kinds of love on Let Love. Formerly known as Common Sense, this is the Chicago rapper’s first album in [...]
Lil Berete Icebreaker New Gen/XL Recordings Things are moving fast for young Toronto rapper Lil Berete, with some strong singles over the last year or so now followed by his debut album, the eight-track mixtape Icebreaker, mostly just down to [...]
Lil Yachty Lil Boat 2 Universal Music Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty (“The King Of The Teens”, “King of The Youth”) has the admirable ability not to take himself too seriously, but unfortunately a lot of his humour seems to have deserted him on this [...]
Freddie McGregor Bobby Bobylon: Deluxe Edition Studio One This is one of those classic sets that should be on everyone’s playlist; it is almost inevitably included when talk moves to the subject of classic reggae albums. Initially released in [...]
Juicy J Rubba Band Business Kemosabe/Taylor Gang/Sony Music Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, Juicy J, the rap veteran who dropped his first solo album in 2002, while he was still a member of Three 6 Mafia, the group he founded in 1991 – [...]
Downchild Something I’ve Done Linus Entertainment A Canadian institution of almost fifty years standing, their first single was released back in 1973, “Flip Flop and Fly”. Downchild – still referred to in some quarters as [...]
Little Miss Higgins My Home, My Heart Independent Little Miss Higgins, a.k.a. Jolene Higgins, originally out of Brooks, Alberta and now living in rural Manitoba with her partner and son, writes, plays and sings in a beautifully authentic [...]
A$AP Mob Cozy Tapes Vol. 2 – Too Cozy A$AP Worlwide/RCA A lot of people have been waiting eagerly for this, the second studio album from A$AP Mob, and although it might not quite always hit the heights, they won’t be too disappointed. A$AP [...]
A$AP Twelvyy 12 A$AP Worlwide/RCA Rapper A$AP Twelvyy finally steps out from the Bronx-based A$AP Mob after a decade or so of being in the background to release his first album under his own name – or at least, under Jamel Phillips’ stage name, [...]
The Harringtons Change Is Gonna Come Independent Rock and roll’s default position tends to be the sound of the early to mid-60s when pop was young, the first flush of the music had passed and young musicians were enthusiastically taking up the [...]
Lil Yachty Teenage Emotions Universal Music Canada At a time when rap seems sometimes to be drifting aimlessly, lingering in the doldrums, along comes Atlanta, Georgia’s Lil Yachty. Without going overboard about his flow, it is fair to say that [...]
Mark Lanegan Band Gargoyle Heavenly Recordings Where bluesy pop meets freaky electronica and ambient music… try “Beehive”, “Death’s Head Tattoo” and “Blue Blue Sea” respectively. But these are only vague [...]
K’Valentine Here For A Reason Javotti Media That album title is not just conceit – it recalls K’Valentine’s near fatal automobile accident on I-94 one Sunday evening back in September 2015. Thankfully – and somewhat miraculously – [...]
Sinkane Life & Livin’ It City Slang Now here’s one of the good things about globalisation. The beautifully gentle singer Sinkane, given name Ahmed Gallab and of Sudanese heritage, was born in London and relocated to the U.S.A. when [...]
Duke Garwood Garden Of Ashes Heavenly Recordings The blues tends to be rather conservative, with change occurring only slowly. The south London area has long been a major centre for Britain’s blues scene, and it was the location for one of the [...]
