America - Folk Music From Wisconsin - Various Artists

Advantages: The antithesis of commercial rubbish.
Disadvantages: Very few.

...This is must buy as along with being great music is also a documentation of rarely recorded works of a fleeting genre. A number of the artists recorded have never previously been recorded at all and some are now deceased, since these recordings were made. Sufi music is Islamic in nature but has very little to do with organised religion. The music itself is not written or performed to any set standard but rather being truly folk music is passed down from generation to generation. Each individual performance is unique and the genre thus evolves quite organically. These CDs concentrate on Pakistani Sufi music which grew out of Islamic mysticism that developed around the Indus river from the 8th century onwards. The content varies from deeply haunting to light-hearted to the almost surreal in Ghulam Ali Qawwal and Party's "Deewana hai... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

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 probably one of the most impressive tracks on the album; this song featured delicately sung lyrics and an impressive story which i think is based on world war 2. Some of the other tracks were almost up to this standard but were too boring and didn't catch my attention.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: great music
Disadvantages: none

...this was such an amazing colourful exciting vibrant film and subsequently i would have been dissapointed if the music was not also exceptional. every song in this album is outstanding and is greatly crafted to suit the occasion style and originality. these are the songs that will never die and you can hear all the time be it in your car, on your mp3 player or at home. there are songs in it for every occasion - dance songs, classical, folk type, sad, romantic, etc. and there is something in it for everyone. if someone is new to bollywood this would be an ideal gift as it does, in a cd, summarise all the various genres of bollywood today. this cd is extremely original in that it takes things from the whole of india (rather than stealing songs from other films which is what happens in india! ;)... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful