Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Best of 2018: Music
By PETER MASON
Inspired: Mavis Staples [Jalylah Burrrell/Creative Commons]

 

I SAW three-piece Serbian band Igralom by accident on a visit to the Bulgarian capital Sofia a few months ago, when they were supporting all-action outfit New Zealand outfit The Cavemen on what was billed as a punk night.

Although the headliners justified the punk tag, it would be a stretch to place Igralom in the same field. The publicity material for their second album Pogrena Poznanstva, which they were showcasing on the night, described them as playing “psychedelic-trans-blues” and, as far as labels go, that seemed to do a better job

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Arin Keshishi Quintet on stage / Pic: Artstage
Culture / 24 November 2025
24 November 2025

As part of the 2025 London Jazz Festival Rich Mix offered intriguing sessions titled 'Persian Jazz,' CHRIS SEARLE was there

Cabaret Voltaire live, October 2025. Photo: Leon Chew
Culture / 24 November 2025
24 November 2025

NEIL GARDNER listens to a refreshingly varied setlist that charts the band’s voyage from avant-garde experimentalists to techno pioneers

latitude
Festival review / 1 August 2025
1 August 2025

TOM STONE checks the political coordinates of a festival where the pleasures of nostalgia were (sometimes) harnessed to a new message 

War On Drugs in 2018
Culture / 20 December 2024
20 December 2024
Reading the Uncut and Mojo magazines’ albums of the year lists over the last couple of weeks, I’ve realised anew they consistently ignore many exceptional, lesser known artists