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Unearthly harmonies born of Pygmy song, Moroccan chants and exhuberant scat made Zap Mama global a cappella queens. Now for the first time they meet the roots throb of bass and drums, shot through with equal parts highlife and hip-hop. Zap Mama is soul music for the diaspora. "If your ears are open,...

Quite possibly the most beautiful and influential West African record ever released internationally, Juju Music remains a revelation. With a phalanx of electric guitars that functions like a percussion section, and talking drums that sound like a gossipy Greek chorus, Nigerian juju star King Sunny A...

This ain’t your daddy’s Afrobeat, but a prime sampler of cutting-edge urban dance grooves by African artists. Of course, most non-classical Western styles can trace their essence to the continent anyway. But now, as American and European pop saturate the world’s airwaves and the internet is om...

She had the musicality of Ella Fitzgerald, the public presence of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis Presley Her name was Umm Kulthum, and she became a powerful symbol, first of the aspirations of her country, Egypt, and then of the entire Arab World. Narrated by Omar Sherif, Umm Kul...

This record owes as much to Can, Eno, and MIA as it does to Kuti, Francis Bebey, and Funkadelic. There's no loss of steam as this Michigan collective incorporates new influences. NOMO breaks through with a matured and developed sound that's fully their own. They've shared stages with Earth Wind And ...

While Youssou N’Dour’s international releases have always combined Senegalese musical traditions with outside sources of inspiration, Egypt takes a fresh approach; on this album, the rhythms and melodies of Senegal drive arrangements featuring Egyptian and Arabian orchestral sounds. Featuring tr...

If you think belly-dancing music is simple, this CD from Cairo-born percussionist Hossam Ramzy, the leader of Pharaoh's Egyptian Ensemble (he also toured with Robert Plant and Debbie Harry), will correct that assumption. Ramzy is a master of the darbouka, the Egyptian version of the tabla; the t...

Here's truly remarkable music from a streetcorner band that hails from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. "Discovered" by awesome Dutch avant-punk act the Ex during a tour in the embattled region, Konono #1 makes hypnotic, beautiful, heavily rhythmic dance music with an often heavily-distorted electri...

Afro-Rock, Vol. 1...

Budget priced anthology of the African pop group's western appealing sound and harmonies....