World Music

Storytelling lies at the heart of Celtic music; breathtaking voices sing tales of lost love, tragedies both old and new, as well as exile, prison, war, and separation. Featuring bodhrán, flute, guitar and harp, this Rough Guide includes old folk lullabies, work songs and contemporary compositions from leading Celtic artists.

For more information, visit www.worldmusic.net/celtic

The term ‘Celtic music’ encompasses the sweet songs and wistful melodies of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany (France), Asturias and Galicia (Spain). The modern Celtic music revival was shaped, in large part, by the folk movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Yann-Fanch Kemener played a role in revitalizing the kan ha diskan vocal tradition from Britanny during this era and is heard on this compilation with fellow Breton and cellist Aldo Ripoche.

In Wales, many of the Celtic traditions were lost during the Nonconformist movement in the eighteenth century, and musicians such as the group Ffynnon, represented here on ‘Llanw Chwant’, were left to reconstruct traditional works. The revival has reached new heights in recent decades, epitomized by the Scottish group, Capercaillie, a band that has sold over a million albums. At the root of Capercaillie’s music are folk melodies such as puirt-a-beuls (Celtic mouth music) and waulking songs. 

Certainly, one of the trademarks of Celtic music is a breathtaking lead vocal, exemplified by Cara Dillon and Karen Matheson. Another distinctive feature of Celtic music is using instruments to mimic human expressions: Alasdair Fraser’s doleful violin playing on ‘Highlander’s Farewell to Ireland’ sings out above Natalie Hass’ vocalizing rich cello tone. 
 Another hallmark that has been synonymous with Celtic music is captivating storytelling. Tales of lost love, tragedies both old and new, as well as exile, prison, war, and separation can be found here, woven through old folk lullabies and work songs, as well as contemporary compositions. ‘Caitlin Triall’ by Altan tells the story of a man who falls in love with a woman only to be left dejected and forlorn when he spies her out with another man. ‘The Butcher Boy’ by Grada is a retelling of an American folk song rooted in historic English broadside ballads. The sorry tale recounts the fate of a young lover, who after finding out she has been betrayed by the butcher’s apprentice she loves hangs herself and is found by her father. She leaves a suicide note that asks him to show the world that she ‘died for love’. Dublin-born John Doyle sings of convicts departing for Botany Bay, a settlement in Australia designed for deported prisoners to be incarcerated in instead of in Britain, which at that time included Ireland.  

As a result of large waves of Scottish, Irish, and French immigration to North America, Celtic music has also taken root in Atlantic Canada and parts of the American northeast, and has in turn heavily influenced both bluegrass and country music. Vishtèn are a high-flying Acadian folk band whose driving music features tight harmonies, foot percussion and virtuoso electric and acoustic instrumentation. 

Today, Celtic music is expanding in virtually every direction as groups such as Chantan, Solas and the Old Blind Dogs fuse elements of rock, jazz, electronica, R&B, and African folk music with traditional Celtic melodies.


Dalla: Tane An Gove (taken from The Rough Guide To Celtic Music)

Anansy Cissé’s souped-up guitar distortions re-work the West African Desert Blues genre with a new, agitated attitude. Featuring the soku fiddle playing of Zoumana Tereta and accompanied by ngoni, bass and calabash, Cissé’s sound harnesses musical traditions and spits it out anew, taking us into Mali Overdrive.

For further information, please visit www.worldmusic.net/anansycisse

When Cissé’s recording ‘Bala’ landed on our website via World Music Network’s online ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition, we were immediately taken by his gutsy guitar style that plays on tradition by matching it with the direct influence of 1960s and 1970s psychedelic-flavoured rock and roll. 

The story begins in late 2012, when Anansy was forced to dismantle the recording studio he ran in Diré following the invasion of Mali’s northern regions by militant Islamists, many of whom are opposed to secular music-making. His poignant track ‘Gonmi’ calls for peace across Mali and is a reminder of the despair felt by many at the concerning political divisions and connected social reverberations caused by religious tension in the Northern region. Forced to relocate further south, Anansy headed to the beating heart of Mali’s capital city and is now resident blues bad-boy in Bamako.

In Bamako Anansy met Philippe Sanmiguel who is now his percussionist and manager. Anansy soon called on a few more friends to add to the musical pot: esteemed ngoni player Djimé Sissoko laid down some riffs, Abdramane Touré took to the bass and Mahalmadane Traoré found time to slap and smack his calabash. 

Presently Anansy lives in the Faladié district of Bamako and consistently and is steadily working on more material. In the corners of his house, vast towering piles of old-school vinyl peer down on  visiting musicians providing a clue to Anansy’s inspirations: The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and CSN&Y are all represented. His close appreciation of rock music is heard distinctly via the anthemic guitar riff of the track ‘Fati Ni Koye’. Equal stimulation for his songs, text and rhythm is drawn from traditional Fulani and Songhai music. ‘Sekou Amadou’ pays tribute to the leader and founder of the Fulani Empire of Macina. ‘Horey’ is a takamba song from Gao and Timbuktu. The rhythm is historically linked to the Songhai nobility but electrified and re-energised in Anansy’s version. 

In the often polarised world music community, young African musicians are often either too hastily dismissed as local pop stars who have no international appeal or as authentic saviours in a misplaced quest for authenticity. Now, proudly ramping up the volume and fearlessly taking Malian music into rock overdrive is Anansy Cissé – a pioneer of new music that champions ancient tradition and uncharted modernity at once. 

Anansy Cissé: Fati Ka (taken from the album Mali Overdrive)

Almost eradicated during the time of the Khmer Rouge, the psychedelic sounds of Cambodia live on in the memory of survivors and exiles as cherished treasures of a lost past. This Rough Guide celebrates the mind bending music from the 1960s and 1970s, with some of the best known artists of the day including Sin Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, Pan Ron alongside dynamic revival bands Dengue Fever and The Cambodian Space Project.

For more information, visit: www.worldmusic.net/cambodia

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHEDELIC CAMBODIA

1960s and early-1970s Cambodian pop is a treasure trove of kookily re-worked takes on the best beat and psychedelic music of the day. Digging into the archive, one cannot disconnect these golden tracks from the horrifying history of human and cultural genocide in twenty-first century Cambodia. Pop music was squashed by Pol Pot’s evil fisted dictatorship and in recent years has been literally re-born. The Khmer Rouge administration destroyed hundreds of master recordings, reel-to-reels, vinyls and cassettes and murdered many musicians in cold blood. This Rough Guide is significant as it contributes to preserving and spreading awareness of Cambodia’s uniquely cool pop music in relation and understanding to its battered social history. 

This introductory compilation includes songs by stars of the day Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, Pan Ron and others who sadly later perished at the hands of Pol Pot’s regime. Sinn Sisamouth was nicknamed the Elvis of Cambodia and wrote thousands of songs as well as covering the well-known western pop songs of the period. He penned new verses for songs like ‘House of the Rising Sun’, ‘Black Magic Woman’ and ‘Sugar Sugar’. The life and fate of the period's great diva, Ros Sereysothea, was one of difficult times and failed relationships, which were reflected in the sad and soulful ballads for which she has subsequently become celebrated.

This Rough Guide also presents the retro sounds of present-day throwback bands Dengue Fever and Cambodian Space Project. These groups riff on the hypnotic grooves of yesterday while also composing their own original tracks in the genre. Dengue Fever are a Los Angeles-based six-piece whose popularity is soaring. Their humorous track ‘Tiger Phone Card’ tackles the modern-day problem of maintaining a trans-Atlantic long-distance relationship. 

Discover the vintage psychedelic rhythms of swinging Cambodia on this compilation. This deeply cool music is seeping into the consciousness of a wider world who can’t resist these irresistible resurging grooves.

Pan Ron: Paem Nas Sneha (Love Like Honey) (taken from The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Cambodia)

The music of Latin America combines Spanish guitars, African percussion, and indigenous flutes to create some of the most vibrant music on the planet. The children’s songs on this Rough Guide take the lively Latin styles and add stories of ancient kingdoms, mythical journeys, natural wonders, and of course a host of wild animals.

For more information, visit www.worldmusic.net/latinchildren

Vieja Trova Santiaguera: El Tren (taken from The Rough Guide To Latin Music For Children)

Jazz improvisation, syncopated beats and counter-culture attitudes have been swinging in the Arab world since the early twentieth century. This Rough Guide explores today’s thriving scene, revealing how blending jazz and Arabic music has created the most beautiful of musical concoctions.

For more information, visit www.worldmusic.net/arabicjazz

The Rough Guide To Arabic Jazz
This Rough Guide travels the Arab world exploring the depth and range of jazz interpretations heard across the region’s many nations and cultures. 

Lebanon’s rich musical melting pot is to thank for many of the tracks on this album. Haunting track ‘Harrama el-Nawma’ is by Rima Khcheich, a singer from Khiam in the south of the country. Lebanese trumpeter and composer Ibrahim Malouf’s ‘Nomade Slang’ is anchored by an undulating double-time drum pattern with sharp stinging horn lines and inquisitive rising bass figures. Another Beirut-born musician, Rabi Abou-Khalil, contributes the track ‘A Better Tomorrow’ with his masterful oud bringing out a slinky, seductive flavour with brushed drums and a languorous wind solo. ‘Masâr’ by Le Trio Jourban also spotlights the iridescent delicacy of the stringed oud. 

Ahmad Kaabour is also from Lebanon and a prominent cultural figure in the Middle East: his 1975 hit ‘Oundaikom’ became the anthem of the Palestinian struggle. ‘Abou Afif’ was released in 2012 and is a peppy, almost saccharine number that encapsulates the feel of modernist 1970s jazz. 

Daramad count in the proceedings with the track ‘Tigris Eye’. The band’s line-up features a mix of Persian and Australian musicians allowing them to create a delicate musical dialogue. 

Karim Ziad is an Algerian jazz percussionist, guitarist and gumbri (Moroccan bass lute) player. Omar Faruk Tekbilek was born of Turkish and Egyptian parents and currently resides in America. ‘Dark Eyes’ is inspired by Sufi devotional music and ambient electronica. Maurice El Medioni stirs a potent punch with Cuban percussionist Roberto Rodriguez on closing track ‘Ana Ouna’.

Jazz is still pulsing through the veins of Arabic homelands and this Rough Guide offers up an insight in to the scene. 


Hijaz: Chemsi (taken from the album The Rough Guide To Arabic Jazz)

Sally Nyolo’s slinking grooves and deep Cameroonian rhythms combine gently warping guitars, feather-light percussion and demure husky vocals.

For more information visit: www.worldmusic.net/sallynyolo

Sally Nyolo: Meso Wa Yen

Voatse (Homॐ Sound Remix)

With its raw passion and elegance, fado is one of the world’s great living musical traditions – its melancholic songs about lost love and tragic stories of the sea have a bewitching beauty. Listen to tales of lament and longing from the greatest fado legends including Amália Rodrigues, Maria de Fé and João Ferreira-Rosa.

For more information, visit www.worldmusic.net/fado

Armandinho: Fado Armandinho (taken from The Rough Guide To Fado Legends)

This Rough Guide offers another treasure chest of golden nuggets from the Latin Rare Groove mother lode. Glittering delights range from Ray Pérez’s Venezuelan combo Los Kenya to the retro-funk sounds of The New Mastersounds and a previously unreleased gem by NYC salsa orchestra Conjunto Alayon featuring a young Jimmy Bosch.

For more information, visit: http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/RGNET1324

Los Kenya: Un Clavel, Una Tarjeta Y Un Lapiz (taken from The RG To Latin Rare Groove Vol. 2)

This Rough Guide explores the heady influence of psychedelia on salsa, from the fuzzy tropical guitars of the sixties and seventies to today’s cutting edge bands experimenting with weird & wonderful psychedelic sounds.

For sound samples, videos and further information, visit: www.worldmusic.net/psychedelic-salsa

Psychedelic rock and salsa came of age together in the mid to late 1960s under parallel socio-cultural circumstances of upheaval, unrest and experimentation within the respective youth cultures of their core audiences. 
Historically there are direct connections between the world of the hippie counter-culture and Latin music (from Fania’s Jerry Masucci being friends with Woodstock’s Michael Lang to ‘mambonik’ Bill Graham urging Santana to cover Tito Puente. In places like Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and especially Peru, non-Latin global youth culture – or at least some of the music, dress, art, and social attitude – was quite influential as well, producing tropical music with fuzzed out guitars, echo effects, and electric keyboards
In the late 1970s through to the 1990s, discotheque remix dance culture spawned the psychedelic extended salsa mixes of studio wizards like Baron Lopez and the wild playing of Cuban violinist Alfredo de la Fé (featured here with Orchestra Rytmo Africa-Cubana), both of which factored in trippy dub effects borrowed from another Caribbean music with psychedelic leanings, namely reggae.
This collection explores not only those early connections and cross-pollinating influences but also the resurgence of interest in the subject of the psychedelic sound today, from a revival of the experimental vibe that made the early years of salsa so varied and interesting to the equally intriguing phenomenon of retro analogue aesthetics that seems to be on the rise. 
Current Latin artists like Bio Ritmo, La Mecánica Popular, Bacalao Men, Quantic, Fantasma and San Lázaro have found themselves looking back to the days of progressive, open attitudes when the emphasis was on message and music, not on singer as star or producing bland pop for mass consumption. This is, perhaps, a reaction to the fallout of the over-commercialisation and dilution of salsa in the 1980s and the concurrent ascendance of merengue, bachata and (later) reggaeton. The influence of rare groove collecting, DJ-driven investigations into the golden era, and a spill-over from the success of retro funk and soul acts like Sharon Jones have shaped current ‘indie’ salsa production as well.

Nelson Y Sus Estrellas: Londres (taken from The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Salsa)

From bright Nigerian highlife horns to Ethiopian fuzz-tone guitar riffs, this Rough Guide presents a broad selection of rare African dance grooves. Hard to find but easy to dance to.

Free tracks, videos and more information at www.worldmusic.net/africanraregroove

The concept of ‘Rare Groove’ has come a long way since its origins in the 1980s London club scene, where DJs would try to out-do each other with soul and funk obscurities. These days the blogosphere is full of enthusiasts sharing their latest vintage vinyl finds, with African music providing rich pickings. But there is a largely untapped resource of independent labels in Africa, America and Europe releasing fabulous sounds that deserve a much wider audience. This collection pulls together a variety of African grooves music from Mozambican marrabenta to Nigerian highlife.

Gentleman Mike Ejeagha and his protégé Celestine Ukwu are both known for morally instructive songs in the Igbo language of south-eastern Nigeria. ‘Ikpechakwa A-Akem Kpee’ starts with a clarion call of horns and quickly settles into an old-school highlife groove. Ukwu is a bit more laid back, with a fabulously languid horn section. Osayomore Joseph is known as ‘Ambassador’ for popularising the Edo language through music. ‘Oyeye’, with its ringing guitar and rasping brass was one of his first hits in the early 1970s.

Orchestra Marrabenta Star De Moçambique takes its name from an urban music style from Maputo, speeding up the rural majika rhythm and adding pulsing horns. Ayalèw Mèsfin started singing with Ethiopian Police Orchestra before developing his own rock’n’roll-influenced sound full of moody fuzz-guitar riffs, keyboard stabs and horn punches. Analogue synths meet old school East African Rumba in ‘Kai Kai’ by Yam Yam, a previously unreleased track featuring the talents of Congolese émigrés Les Mangalepa, now based in Nairobi, and British producer Guy Morley. International Orchestra Safari Sound, formed in Tanzania in 1985, developed a style known as ndekule, which refers to both a traditional war dance and a species of snake. ‘Homa Imenizidia’, with lyrics about an overpowering fever, certainly has a serpentine grace! 

West Nkosi’s sax jive style provides a stepping stone between penny-whistle kwela and mbaqanga, the township music unforgettably dubbed ‘The Indestructible Beat’. ‘Malombo’s ‘Mbaqanga Blues’ is an edgier proposition featuring multi-instrumentalist Phillip Tabane and Gabriel Thobejane on percussion.

Super Cayor De Dakar described their brand of Afro-Latin music salsa-mbalax. The 1996 version of ‘Dégoo’ included here is more immediate than later recordings, with a sublime combination of keyboards and horns. Saleta Phiri was one of the first two musicians to receive ‘The Malawi Honours Of The Achievers Award’. His songs speak of the hardships of life in the volatile township of Ndirande. On ‘Ndolo’, Cameroonian polymath Francis Bebey combines pygmy flute, a rattle-bag of percussion and a gently funky bass-line with intriguingly contrasting vocal styles, though the theme is given away in the final line: ‘I’m singing my love for you’.


Gentleman Mike Ejeagha & His Premiers Dance Band: Ikepechakwa A - Akem Kpee

Monoswezi weave traditional African songs and instruments with cool Scandinavian jazz. Zimbabwean mbira and vocals are enriched with Mozambican percussion and embellished with Nordic sax and sympathetic rhythm section.

For videos and further information, visit www.worldmusic.net/monoswezi-yanga

Monoswezi: Matatya (taken from the album Monoswezi Yanga)

Monoswezi’s music sounds fresh and wide-open: traits that owe to the bands marvelously multi-cultural inspirations. Expect gentle mbira, looping percussion, memorable sung melodies, and subtle saxophone

Monoswezi: Regret (re-edit)

From its underground roots in the nightclubs of New York, disco music had strong connections with the Latino community. The irresistible influence of salsa and Latin percussion permeates this selection, which features many of the legendary artists of the 1970s disco heyday as well as the new wave of Latin disco inspired bands.

More information at www.worldmusic.net/latin-disco

Salsoul Orchestra: Salsoul Hustle

Keeping an ear to the ground for today’s Malian sounds, these tunes were specially recorded for this release and feature inspirational new artists yet to be heard outside their homeland.

For more visit www.worldmusic.net/lostinmali

Nainy Koné: Ne Sabou

The psychedelic movement of the 1960s imprinted a kaleidoscopic stamp on musical cultures from across the globe – from the Tropicália artists in Brazil to the Afrobeat groups in West Africa and even the legendary Bollywood composers. Carefully selected from albums in the Rough Guide Psychedelic series, these mind-bending, rebellious and deeply cool grooves create a heady psychedelic brew which is guaranteed to open up new musical doors.

More information at www.worldmusic.net/psychedelic

Ros Seresyothea: Jam 10 Kai Theit (from The Rough Guide To A World Of Psychedelia)

This cutting edge Rough Guide digs deep into today's dynamic, shape-shifting Brazilian jazz scene – leaving 'The Girl From Ipanema' lounging in the shade.

For more information: http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/RGNET1345

Fernando Moura & Ary Dias: Mexido (taken from The Rough Guide To Brazilian Jazz)

South African jazz is a pertinent reminder of the intrinsic link between music and the dismantling of oppression. This Rough Guide celebrates the legacy of many of the great players and showcases the wealth of burgeoning jazz talent emerging from the Rainbow Nation.

More information at http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/RGNET1341

Abdullah Ibrahim: Soweto (taken from the Rough Guide To South African Jazz)

‘My Head’ is an Ethio-Latin jazz track, which pays homage to John Coltrane’s "Africa Brass" album (McCoy Tyner on piano), with a nod to Horace Silver and Dave Brubeck. The piano riff-led sonic journey leads you through the east African highlands via a Latin nightclub in Addis Ababa and on to Brazil.

The track, like a lot of Ethiopian music, is in 3/4 and 6/4 time signature. The Afro-Brazilian 2/4 pulse gives it danceability! 

Samuel Yirga - My Head

Krar Collective serve up mind-blowing Ethiopian grooves on this excellent debut. Armed with their krar, kebero drums and stunning vocals, they have created Ethiopia Super Krar – an album rooted in tradition, and soaked with attitude.

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