Lonely Planet Guide to World Music for the Over 50s
Avoid over-production at all costs. Don’t be sucked in by the sheer volume of World Music out there. This just means there is a lot of rubbish produced & over-hyped.
There is the odd exception to this latter rule. The Buena Vista Social Club was everything & more than the hype led you to believe.
Don’t be afraid to dig deeper or go back even further. Remember a lot of World Music was around before Womad/Womex & the Peter Gabriel/Eno/David Byrne axis.
On a purely personal level, the areas of specific interest to me: includes the superb ‘Sublime Frequencies’ label output by the Bishop Brothers of Sun City Girls, especially the ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives’.
On African music I would suggest you keep it really real & discount anything produced in Paris. Also I would add that acoustic instruments are better than electric, unless of course we are discussing Fela Kuti or King Sunny Ade or that astonishing Ethiopiques series.
The corners of this diminishing planet that provide the best world music are:
· Tibet/Mongolia
· Brazil/cuba/Columbia
· Bali/Indonesia/cambodia
· North africa
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