World > Welsh World > Scottish > Celtic > British > Irish > 5 GBP to 10 GBP

Advantages: Excellent Choice of Songs
Disadvantages: None

This CD is excellent. I have always been a fan of Male Voice choirs (not just because I'm welsh) because the overall harmony is gorgeous!! I saw this CD advertised recently on the TV and my parents bought it for me. I was not disappointed. There is an excellent selection on traditional welsh ballads with past pop hits etc. People often mistake Male Voice Choirs as just a 'Welsh Thing' that they won't nessarily enjoy, I think they would be pleasently ...
...20, not many of the younger generation appreciate music different to hip-pop, punk-rock or rap but as I was brought up surrounded by jazz, classical, brass etc, I have a much wider taste, thankfully. This is a CD that I play quite often and enjoy every time. The Tracks on this CD: 1) Sailing 2) Abide With Me 3) Jerusalem 4) Land Of My Fathers 5) Danny Boy 6) Unchained Melody 7) You Raise Me Up 8) Shenandoah 9) You'll Never Walk Alone 10) All Through ... Read review

Advantages: Relaxing story telling music with a bit of heart
Disadvantages: Too boring

OK album, with a nice mix of different artist most of which i have never hear of before. As you can probably tell I'm not usually into this kind of music but being someone always looking to expand my musical horizons, I thought i would give it a go but was not too impressed. Most of the songs featured were not too impressive, many of which sounded very boring and generic for the genre. Track 15, Green Fields of France - Furey & Davey Arthur was ... Read review

Advantages: Some great recordings of rare tracks
Disadvantages: Misses some of Romica's best works

From 1864 and the abolition of slavery, many homeless gypsies settled on the outskirts of southern towns of Romania, these areas were called "mahalas" and it was where the songs "cantece de mahala" (songs of the suburbs) originated. People met in the local cafe or "carciuma" and a group of local musicians the "taraf" which usually consisted of violinist, double bass player, cobza, accordian and tambal and vocalist would entertain everyone else. This ...
...in 1926 in Bucharest and started singing in cafes by the age of 14 but it wasn't until 1964 that she actually recorded an album, The Gore Brothers (famous Romanian musicians - Aurel and Victor) who also grew up in the same mahala and were in fact cousins to Puceanu helped her become famous by organising gigs for her. She has a strange voice, sometimes incredibly high other times really low - quite similar to a black male blues artist. She was infact ... Read review

Advantages: Uplifting and joyful
Disadvantages: For a debut album, it's hard to fault

...based since 2003 and where Navega was recorded. On this delightfully poised debut album, the 23 year-old Mayra sings on all but one of the songs in a Cape Verdean Creole - a language derived from Portuguese. I didn't realise how different the language was until I looked at the strange text in which the lyrics are written. I had the unusual experience of being able to understand more her singing voice, but less able to decipher the written lyrics. ...
...CD booklet, though after some study I have come to the conclusion that the English translation is not a good one. Nevertheless, there is enough to give you a good sense of the feel and subject matter of each song. Musical InfluencesLargely due to her background, Mayra Andrade's music is a mixture of international influences, in which traditional Cape Verdean rhythms and song-forms are fused with Afro rhythms, Latin melodies, Brazilian samba ... Read review

Advantages: A sublime fusion of roots and more modern music
Disadvantages: Not as good as some contemporaries

This is the self-named album Kal by Kal! Kal are a Serbian band from the small village of Valjevo but are now based in Belgrade, they fuse traditional roma music with a very slight amount of pop/crooning, they are one of very few Serbian artists that still play Balkan music in the traditional sense as Serbian music is these days liittered with keyboards in general. Kal (Romani for black) were once described by a BBC journalist in Leicester as "the ...
...spot on in this case. Kal dress in black suits and hats which instantaneously gives them a mafia look, this image is quickly broken though as they're jolly outlook on life woos the crowd where ever they are quite quickly. The band themselves do a lot of work in Serbia to integrate the roma people in to Serbia in general through theatre productions spanning from Budapest to Belgrade and Bucharest, each year they also run a school (Amala School in ... Read review