News, reviews and commentary on afrobeat and related music from Africa, The Caribbean and The Americas

Thursday, December 03, 2009

2010 Year End Favorites



Here's some of my favorite world music releases for the year:

Orchestra Poly Rythmo de Contonou, Analog Africa No. 6, Echos Hypnotiques. More great vintage stuff from the people at Analog Africa. This is fantastic funky music.

Yet more awesome funky vintage shit. Let's hope they keep digging this stuff up for us.

Beautiful folk music from Senegal.

Early live recordings from Dakar and Paris. I love pretty much everything they do (or have done).

Searing desert blues. Drink plenty of water.


Fantastic album that mixes modern and traditional to just the right effect.

You need the whole three volume set, because you need six full discs of the Rail Band! Well, that's at least how I think about it. But seriously, this is timeless Malian jam-band rock at its very best.

I think guitar playing runs in his family. The album is great, but the live show is truly awesome.

I must admit I don't listen to this as much as the others, but the sound is quite diverse and very innovative.

One of the best new releases for traditional West African singing and instrumentation.

2 comments:

  1. hello
    gave your cool blog and a number of related sites a mention here:
    http://uzine.posterous.com/afro-beat-is-hot
    best
    p.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Legends of Benin" is indeed a brilliant album, one of those rare albums that's good from start to finish. Thanks for the other tips, some I haven't listened to yet. The recently released "Black Mans Cry" album with music inspired by Fela is pretty good too.
    Cheers, warm greetings from the Netherlands

    ReplyDelete