Recommend me some world music!

Cafe Society
1

… A la Peter Gabriel’s afro-influenced stuff. Specifically his early 80’s stuff. I’d like to avoid for the moment a trip down prog-rock lane (not that there’s anything wrong w/ that)

I’ve always liked his early 80’s offerings, which seem to hint at least to african rythems, so I headed to the local music store, and was promptly lost in the world music section. The only other group I found was via PG’s website, Afro-Celt Sound System, which isn’t half bad.

Is there anyone else who does this kind of music, pop music-y / African stuff? Any reccommendations appriciated.

2

Angelique Kidjo.

3

You might want to start by checking out KEXP. On Monday evenings from 6-9 Pacific time is their “Best Ambiance” show, which is all African music. On Tuesday evenings in the same timeslot is “Wo’ Pop”, which is a more general world-music show. The KEXP web site should have a couple weeks’ worth of each show archived in case you want to listen at other times during the week.

4

There were some good recommendations in this thread.

For an artist you might like: check out Habib Koite, a guitarist from Mali. I esp. like his album Ma Ya.

5

Damn – meant to hit preview, not submit.

My absolute all-time favorite world-music album is Pirates Choice by Orchestra Baobab – it’s basically a Senegalese band playing Cuban dance music.

6

For Afro-beat music try Fela Kuti.

He single-handedly made up the genre. It’s highly contagious, very political, rhythmic music. Good stuff.

7

Koite is very good and I’ve seen him in concert. Ali Farka Toure is (was) very good; his album with Ry Cooder is destined to be a classic. A lot of Caribe music is heavily influenced by its African roots.