World

Advantages: Modern and Back to the roots
Disadvantages: Ambient Africa is not the right title for this CD

Although the clearly African direction of this album, you can as well notice the western influences in this music which is not so simple to achieve. This is the real South African music but treated with respect . this music really speaks to everyone, it's modern and roots at the same time. It's not so easy to live with our past, Living Souls is a proof that even during the sad era of apartheid, the music kept people alive. (Bazoyidela - Bayajabula). ... Read review

Advantages: Great UK sound, lyrical, includes DVD
Disadvantages: Couple of weaker tracks

I've always been a greater fan of the UK music scene then that of America. I think it is a fair statement to make that American hip hop is more popular and gets more coverage than UK hip hop. If you are a fan of any urban music then I suggest you check out 'Taz'. Track listing is as follows; 1. Only God Can Judge Me 2. Fast Talk feat Skorpian 3. Wish Me Luck 4. Cowboy Film feat Kardinal Official 5. Flow Pro 6. Left Leg In 7. Can't Contain ...
...Smujji 10. If I Die Tommorow feat Rickman & Cerose 11. Imagine This feat Terri Walker 12. Live and Learn 13. Change The Game feat Cerose 14. Just Walk feat Marga Man From Jamaica, but raised in the UK, Taz is the first majour UK underground signign to the label, 'Def jam'. The released track "Can't Contain Me' provies an energetic view into Taz. My favourite tracks from the album include 'Only God Can Judge Me' and 'Wish Me Luck'. 'Lonely' provides ... 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

Advantages: Superbly talented musicians playing good music
Disadvantages: Flute irritates me sometimes

...throughout the 18th century. Kobzar is brought out by the German record label Eastblok Music and was released in March 2008. 1 - Vstup Is a 19 second song which I'm unaware of the point of, perhaps it has significance. 10/10 or 0/10 depending on how you look at it. 2 - Efir - 4:34 A jolly song where accordian, drumming and later trumpet features highly with a catchy chorus and impressive near orient or latino "aaah's" (if you know what I mean!) ...
...Tramvayem Violin, trumpet and accoustic guitar heavy track to start off with yet another upbeat feeling accompanied with a bit of crooning and later gets a more funky, jazzy feel to it. Insane song to dance to. 8/10 4 - Message Starts off with a heavy metal/hard rock style and moves into reggae with space noises plus the occasional folks instrument (possibly bagpipes) and later jazz trumpets, sang in Polish mostly due to the song being written ... Read review

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 ...
...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 Deewana". The recordings include the unsung masters Pathane Khan and Allan Fakir as well as various tribal instrumentals from Sindh and ... Read review