Help me find great world music for Peace Corp cousins

December 9, 2008 7:25 AM

Mr. gudrun's cousins are doing medical work in Africa with the Peace Corps. They love world music, esp. African, of course, but really they like pretty much everything. We would like to get them some recent world music as a gift for Christmas (we have a quick and secure way to mail it) so please pass on your favorites.
posted by gudrun to media & arts (14 comments total)

I like: Johnny Clegg (African guitar pop)
Peatbog Faeries (Scottish club world music)
Ashley MacIsaac (traditional Scottish, but also fusion-rock)
Dougie MacLean (Scottish folk with sweet vocals)
Karen and Helene (Norwegian, I think- i don't have them on CD)
Great Big Sea- (Canadian Celtic folk/trad rock)
Salsa Celtica (Celtic-Spanish fusion. Can be heard on soundtrack to the movie "Driving Lessons.") I will think of more.

Do you want CD or MP3 recs, the actual MP3s?
posted by SaharaRose at 7:35 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Kasai All-Stars album is pretty good--expect to see it on a lot of best-of-'08 lists, along with Amadou and Mariam's Welcome to Mali. And, if they're lucky, Seun Kuti's Many Things and Femi Kuti's Day by Day.
posted by box at 7:58 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Mariza? - Portuguese Fado singer.
The Soweto String Quartet?
posted by Emilyisnow at 8:04 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

David Byrne puts together a monthly playlist on a variety of topics. August was Africa, June was Arabia, etc.

posted by Unioncat at 8:25 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Nordic Roots, which are 3 CDs available for cheap from Northside Records. One or two of them, and your cousin will have a pretty decent idea of the range of Scandinavian folks (broader than you'd think) and whether or not he likes it. They are also only $5 each.
posted by QIbHom at 8:36 AM on December 9, 2008

Thanks for the answers so far. I am looking for cds, as they have a pretty crappy computer where they are but an ok cd player.
posted by gudrun at 8:39 AM on December 9, 2008

Buy these CDs, every last one of them.
posted by Camofrog at 9:17 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oops, you said recent...and these are not recent. But if they haven't heard it before, who cares when it was recorded?
posted by Camofrog at 9:19 AM on December 9, 2008

MeMail me your address and I'll burn some cds and send them to you.
I'm in mixtape mode at the moment anyway, so you can get 'em while the getting's good.
posted by Acari at 1:30 PM on December 9, 2008

Honest Jon's have a pretty good selection of world music.
posted by robotot at 1:50 PM on December 9, 2008

First of all: World music is a terrible term.

Second of all: "Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6"
posted by soundofsuburbia at 2:18 PM on December 9, 2008

This question is so vague, it's hard to know what to recommend. After all, "world music" is just a catch-all term for any music recorded in a language other than English, and as such, it covers tons of genres. But here's a list of some general recommendations. Recently-released albums (that came out this year) have asterisks.

Africa:
TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Kings of Benin Urban Groove - funky Afrobeat from the '70s
Bisso Na Bisso - Racines - upbeat fusion of hip-hop with Congolese sounds
Tinariwen - Amassakoul - gritty "desert blues"/rock, played on electric guitar
Toumani Diabaté - Boulevard de l'Independence - a lively, upbeat big-band sound; New Ancient Strings (with Ballaké Sissoko) - beautiful, tranquil music played on the kora, which is like a lute
Issa Bagayogo - Tassoumakan - fusion of electronic music with traditional Malian music
Ali Farka Touré - Niafunké - stripped-down guitar music, often compared to American blues music; Talking Timbuktu (with Ry Cooder) - a hugely popular collaboration between the two guitar players, featuring nice slide guitar playing from Cooder
Mabulu - Karimbo - fusion of hip-hop and marrabenta music, an upbeat dance music from Mozambique
King Sunny Adé - Juju Music - a classic of west African highlife music
Tony Allen - Lagos No Shaking - great Afrobeat from Fela Kuti's drummer
Baaba Maal & Mansour Seck - Djam Leelii - beautiful acoustic Senegalese guitar music
Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars - Living Like a Refugee - summery reggae-ish pop music
Seprewa Kasa - self-titled* - lovely acoustic highlife music

Asia & the Middle East:
Djivan Gasparyan - Fuad (with Erkan Oğur) - one of my favorite albums; a collaboration between a Turkish guitarist and an Armenian duduk player (the duduk is a melancholy-sounding woodwind instrument); Endless Vision (with Hossein Alizadeh) - a collaboration with an Iranian musician
Dengue Fever - Escape from Dragon House - an American-Cambodian group that plays retro but fresh-sounding psychedelic pop/surf guitar music
Debashish Bhattacharya - Hindustani Slide Guitar - Bhattacharya is a master of classical Indian music who plays a specially-designed slide guitar; Mahima (with Bob Brozman) - Brozman incorporates American blues rhythms in this great collaboration; Calcutta Chronicles* - Bhattacharya's most recent album, which brings in Hawaiian and Andalusian influences
Purbayan Chatterjee & Shashank - Rasayana - a fusion of north and south Indian classical music, featuring flute and sitar
Shastriya Syndicate - Syndicated* - a sort of classical Indian supergroup
Cheb i Sabbah - Devotion* - skillfully-executed fusion of electronica and Indian devotional music
Erkan Oğur & İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu - Gülün Kokusu Vardı - beautiful, melancholy Turkish folk music
Taksim Trio - self-titled* - lovely album of instrumental Turkish music, featuring clarinet, bağlama (like a small lute) and kanun (zither)
Les Boukakes - Bledi - one of my favorites; a French group with North African roots, who play rock with heavy raï (North African pop) influences
Musicians of the Nile - Charcoal Gypsies - rootsy Egyptian folk music
Marsada - Pulo Samosir - exuberant, upbeat Indonesian folk-pop with lush harmonies

Europe:
Ishbel MacAskill - Essentially Ishbel - a Scottish singer with a beautiful, beautiful voice doing traditional Scottish songs (in Scottish Gaelic) with very sparse instrumentation
Mozaik - Changing Trains* - a band with members from all over Europe, founded by a famous Irish musician, who do great folk music full of energy
Thanasis Papakonstantinou - Agrypnia - an amazing album, sort of avant-garde/experimental with some traditional/folk influences
Kostas Pavlidis - Forth Wings and Fly (Songs of a Greek Gypsy) - beautiful Greek Gypsy/Roma music
Spaccanapoli - Aneme Perze (Lost Souls) - vibrant Italian folk/protest music
Hedningarna - Trä - Scandinavian neo-folk music; basically, traditional music played with a rock-music sensibility. Ditto for the next two albums.
Garmarna - Vedergällningen (Vengeance)
Värttinä - Ilmatar

Latin America:
3 Na Massa - self-titled* - smooth female vocals, rhythmic music, and a retro, noir-ish atmosphere
Vinícius Cantuária - Vinícius - quiet, understated bossa nova
Trio Mocotó - Beleza! Beleza!! Beleza!!! - a reunion album from pioneers of samba rock (a fusion of samba, soul, and funk)
Melingo - Maldito Tango* - tango music from a singer with a really gravelly, Bob Dylan-esque voice
Super Uba - Tierra Lejana - lovely, upbeat traditional Dominican bachata/merengue
Bebo & Cigala - Lágrimas Negras - a collaboration between a Cuban jazz piano player and a Spanish flamenco singer
Polo Montañez - Guajiro Natural - acoustic, relaxed-sounding roots music from Cuba

And if you want to find new music, you might check out the Best of 2008 list at World Music Central and scroll through the Top of the World picks at Songlines magazine.
posted by gg at 4:46 PM on December 9, 2008

Also, here's fRoots magazine's lists of the top albums of 2008.
posted by gg at 4:53 PM on December 9, 2008

Wow, lots of good answers. Thanks, this will give me options for some time to come! I do realize, as gg says, that "world music" is just a catch-all term for any music recorded in a language other than English. My problem is that that is a pretty accurate description of their taste, hence the request for help. Note that they are a husband/wife now setting up in a country that has not had a Peace Corps presence since the 90's, due to political instability, and our cousin's mother-in-law back home has been very ill, so we wanted to do something nice for them this Christmas. Thanks for helping us do that.
posted by gudrun at 9:10 PM on December 9, 2008