I am sick of the status of popular music in the States. It has become a hybrid wasteland of pretty people with minimal talent hiding behind synthesized, semi-melodic beats to thoughtless prose.

I am looking for recommendations for music.... For some reason I am recently interested in music with a more culturally vibrant flavor- i.e. African chants and Caribbean beats)....

One artist I am listening to now is Tsidii Le Loka- she originated the role of Rafiki in the Lion King on Broadway and her album "Here's to the Night" is truly inspiring to me right now....

Please feel free to recommend various styles and as much information on various artists and albums....

Thanks in advance- I truly respect the brother/sisterhood here at Outsports!

I listen to online radio, primarily. I watch 106 & Park when I have an R&B or hip-hop fix, Fuse when I want to know what's indie-rockin', and VH1's weekend countdown when I want to see if there is anything worth catching in the mainstream. The only time I listen to "traditional radio" is during car travel...

So, I'd recommend online radio, something like Epitonic (if it's still running) or even NPR, which should certainly have online radio for world music. Luaka Bop is a record label that specializes in alternative and world-themed music. Putumayo World Music produces CD collections representing various South American and African countries, too. I have Putumayo's CUBA CD from yeeeeeears ago (it's like 7 years old) and I still listen to it regularly when I'm looking for something "different" myself...

I frankly don't listen to radio anylonger....
My iPod gets plugged into the car, and that's the only thing I listen to....I have complete control and play only the music I like (All genres). iTunes always has recommendations for me, and I usually like them, so that's where I get my new music from....

Here are some band suggestions off the top of my head:

Afrocelt Sound System (aka Afrocelts) - Musicians from many countries
The Dead Can Dance - Musicians from many countries
Nomad - A band from Australia
Zoe - A band from Mexico
Aterciopelados - A band from Columbia
Ely Guerra - A musician from Mexico
Moenia - A band from Mexico
Belanova - A band from Mexico
La Ley - A band from Chile
Mana - A band from Mexico
Sufjan Stevens - An American Musician
Babasonicos - A band from Argentina
Soda Stereo - A band from Argentina
Gustavo Ceruti - A musician from Argentina
Bebe - A Musician from Spain
The Gypsy Kings - A band from France
Deep Forest - A band from France

Other music I thought of:

Si Se - a band from NYC

Also, gosh, I thought of a great time back in 1990 when I 1st went to Montréal & heard Jean Leloup. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAappAsGBO0

Manu Chao--I love Clandestino. One of my favorite pictures. The CD is in Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese.

Cesaria Evora--Cafe Atlantico. She is from Cape Verde, and the album is in Creole (African and Portuguese blend). This album got nominated for a Grammy.

I love Manu Chao!

Hey Kick,

As B Man indicated, the Putamayo series is excellent.

SC Trojan mentioned Belanova and I like them. I heard their music when I was in Cuernavaca last year.

I enjoy Mory Kante
Youssou N'dour

Turkish:
Tarkan (I admit that I like him because of his looks )
Or this guy that I just discovered on itunes:
Serdar Ortac "Mesafe". It's more pop/dance.

For jazzier, Sade-like music I like
Les Nubiens

For jazzier elector groove, you can go with these Japanese acts:
Mondo Grosso
Bird
Monday Michiru

And when I go back home to Hawaii to see mom, I always tune into the Hawaiian tunes. Some of my favorite island acts are:
Keali'i Reichel
Hapa
Amy Hanaalii Gilliom
Brothers Cazimero
IZ
John Cruz
Sean Naauao & Robi Kahakalau's duet cd.
and a newer artist with an amazing falsetto, Raiatea Helm.
Also, Tia Carerre released a Hawaiian cd last year (and it is up for a grammy) that is soft & soothing like the island winds. It's basically Tia on vocals and Daniel Ho on the ukelele.

Good luck on your search.

MDG

Hmm...I have no idea about some of those bands that you'll mentioned. But, now I'm intrigued about this Manu Chao.

Spartan...I'm with you. My ipod gets plugged into my car every time I get into it. I am constantly getting great stuff off itunes and I have such a variety of music that I never get bored. The only time I listen to the radio is when I'm trying to get the traffic report or listening to Wendy Williams.

A really cool DJ gig from Mexico is:

The Nortec Collective. Here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0hm-SmT-ek...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8D6akSdDw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4wtz5jty80...feature=related



I also thought of The Thievery Corp. They're american & very cool!

kick,

I wanted to suggest that you listen to a local LA DJ (via England) named Nic Harcourt. He has a radio show from 9 am to 12 pm (PST), M-F called Morning Becomes Eclectic. He plays music from all over the world (and sometimes different eras). He also has weekly live performances by many up & coming artists (both international & national ones). His show has been picked up in NYC, San Francisco & I believe in Portland, OR. He sometimes goes to those cities & spins there. You can also listen to him on the internet. Here's the link. I've enjoyed his show for a VERY long time. Enjoy.

The only 'world' music (how's that for a silly term) I have listened to recently:

Caetano Veloso: Ce
Amadou et Mariam: Dimanche a Bamako

I forgot about these artists. Here are some of their videos.

Enrique Bunbury from Spain.

The Pinker Tones of Spain.

Tiziano Ferro from Italy (although he records in Italian & Spanish).

kick,

Here are my recommendations:

Puerto Rico:
-79 (Siete Nueve): He's a hip-hop artist/rapper whose 1st CD was El Pro-Greso, which is excellent. I'm trying to avoid comparisons, but just to give you an idea, he's in the line of "conscious MC's" like Talib Kweli, The Roots, Common, et alli. He incorporates hip-hop with old-school Salsa and Jazz. He's about to release a new CD called Trabuco. He's got videos on YouTube and you can buy his records on phantomvox.

-Balún: Their name is the phonetic pronounciation in Spanish for "balloon". They are an electronic band and their CD Something Comes Our Way got a 4-star review on allmusic.com. It's available on amazon.com

-One of my favorite Latin Jazz CD's is the collaboration between the late Tito Puente and Salsa singer La India, Jazzin', with the Count Basie Orchestra. This will sound like a cliché, but the music here from start to finish is ON FIRE!!!!

-William Cepeda: If you're looking for Latin Jazz (or Jazz, period) that runs the gamut from accesible (not smooth) to experimental, he's the guy to listen to. You can find his CD's on amazon.com.

You can check out the Fania label's records. They released the absolute classics of Salsa in the '70's and early '80's. Which brings me to...

Panamá
-Anything by Rubén Blades. I think the man is a genius. Again, I'm a bit uncomfortable making comparisons, but to me he is like Joni Mitchell -- superb lyrics (poetry?), innovative music, genre-confounding (at least in his most recent records), boundary-pushing, depth, humanity, vision... In short, a complete artist. His last concert in Puerto Rico (before becoming the Minister of Tourism of Panamá) is one of the deepest artistic experences I've had in my life and the best concert I've ever attended. People didn't want to leave even after four hours of music! I'm proud to say that he considers Puerto Rico to be his second home and we love him back.

Colombia
-Aterciopelados: A duo that fuses rock, "electronica", vallenato, and other styles. My favorite CD of theirs is Caribe atómico ("Atomic Caribbean"). Although they sound nothing alike, they remind me a bit of Eurythmics, especially singer Andrea Echeverri, who has the independence, musicianship, and cool, tough, un-girly image, intelligence and depth of Annie Lennox, without sounding (or looking) at all like her.

México
-This might seem obvious, but Café Tacuba. They are SOOO amazing. Post-modern without hitting you over the head with it, with just the right amount of irony and humor, no cynical posturing, superb musicianship, and great, imaginative, poetic lyrics. For me, their masterpiece is Revés/Yosoy: creative, whimsical, melancholy, elegant, baroque, modern...

-Astrid Hadad: Her records are hard to find outside of México. She parodies and deconstructs Mariachi songs that are very macho and misogynistic. She not only has a great voice, but is also a performance artist.

I agree with SCTrojan about Nortec Collective. Check them out (also, Plastilina Mosh). Belanova is really cool, as well.

Argentina
-Gustavo Cerati: Another obvious choice, but I like him a lot. He was the former singer/composer of Soda Stereo, one of the biggest bands in "Rock en español" history. He has an absolutely beautiful voice and a great songwriter and producer. I highly recommend Bocanada, 11 episodios sinfónicos (to die for!), and Siempre es hoy. He's my #2 dream guy after...

Spain
-Miguel Bosé: The absolute divo. His dad was a famous matador, his mom a famous Italian actress, his family was friends with Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, Count Luchino Visconti was his godfather and he studied dance with Maurice Béjart. You know, the typical upbringing, LOL!

Although he was the equivalent of Ricky Martin when he started doing music in the late '70's, he did a complete 180 in the mid-'80's and started releasing super sophisticated pop records. His writing is poetry -- at his best, reminiscent of Baudelaire and Lorca -- and, although he's not a real musician, he has a spectacular ear for choosing his co-writers and producers, the result being the most elegant pop you can imagine, with an unmistakable high-end European flavor. Besides being a singer, dancer, and polyglot (he speaks five languages), he's also been a music TV show host, a theater director and an actor: He starred in Pedro Almodóvar's Tacones lejanos (High Heels) as the drag queen/detective.

Recommendations: XXX, Bajo el signo de Caín, Laberinto, and Velvetina (the special edition of Velvetina includes a DVD with videos for all the songs, so you might want to check that out first).
WARNING: Don't buy his records sung in English. Not that they are bad (they are the Englsih versions of his Spanish albums). It's just that his writing in Spanish is so superlative that the English versions pale in comparison.

Mali
-Rokia Traoré: I only own one of her CD's, Bowmboï. It is dark, mysterious, elegant, beautiful, haunting. Super recommended.

Edited to add: I think you might also enjoy Zuco 103, a Brazilian/Dutch/German trio, mixing electronic music with Latin American styles, sung in Portuguese. Check Out Tales of High Fever and their other records on Amazon.

I'm not a big fan of rap, but this latin band I like a lot. The lead singer's rap is quite poetic. I like his social commentary on the status of 3rd world indigenous peoples. Plus, the lead singer is one sexy Boricua!

Pal Norte!

Whoa! Calle 13! Totally forgot to add them. That's so cool of you, SCTrojan.

They have been the biggest thing in Puerto Rico for the past 4 years or so, and they began to receive international recognition almost as instantly as their first record was released. Their videos are hilarious and very creative. Residente's (the rapper in the duo) rhymes are awesome and Visitante -- his brother -- does all the music and is a great musician. What they are doing is such a breath of fresh air and SO different from what hip-hop acts (or other artists) are doing in Puerto Rico, with the possible exception of 79, whom I mentioned in my previous post.

Another band from Puerto Rico is Matotumba. They improvise using live instrumention, laptops, and whatever objects they can get a sound out of, like an updated version of Einstürzende Neubauten or what Matthew Herbert and Matmos have been doing. You can download stuff from them on their MySpace page, and their album Imbuiah is on Itunes USA. (You can listen to Imbuiah for free here.)

I had too! ...

I also like the song No Hay Igual, a song they did w/ Nelly Furtado. It's a fun song, something they're both having in the video.

I liked Matotumba...Something I'd listen to on Sun mornings.

I'm not sure if you like electronic music or not. I've loved three artists for a very long time (we're talking early to mid 70s when these guys wrote this stuff). One is Jean Michel Jarre (from France), Tangerine Dream (from Germany) & Kitaro (from Japan).

Here are some videos by them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEurle2UWGc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEc493545zI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNwHmQ5U8vQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CKXDShFXDY...feature=related

Great choices. Some of those I will look into noumenon because I love Puerto Rican music. I also need to add the Cuban group Orishas to that list. The CD Emigrante is amazing. Guajiro is a cool song.

I just heard this bilingual band from LA. They're pretty good.

Monte Negro

I've been watching MTVtr3s (Spanish MTV) & they played a video by Mala Rodriguez. Nice video production!

Maria Rita (last name pronounced "Hita") album title is "Samba Meu" Not loud or poppy. but rather, beautiful songs from this elegant brazilian singer.

also from Brasil, Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Jazz 'round midnight"

Luz Casal "listen to her songs "Ni tu ni yo" or "Lo eres todo"

Laura Pausini (sings in italiano or spanish)

Mecano (try "Eugenio Salvador Dali")


Rosario Flores ("como quieres que te quiera" or "el nino de tus ojos")

Amr Diob "Tamalley Maak" is a great song

Andrea Echeverri "Baby blues"

Bebel Gilberto "aganju"

Carla Bruni (the first lady of France) "quelqu'un m'a dit"

I've been a fan of La Ley from Chile for quite sometime now. I heard this song today. It's pretty cool.

Jori Hulkkonen, a DJ/Producer from Finland, has some pretty cool stuff:

Lo-Fiction.

Never Been Here Before. Btw, John Foxx is the original singer of Ultravox.

Here are some recordings by him.

His official site.

I share Ung's taste for Brazilian music (see above) particularly the beautiful bossa nova style, which was most popular in the 60s, but still influences more modern artists. Here are a few recommendations, all sung in Portuguese, and all of them originally composed by the late great Antonio Carlos Jobim, known in Brasil as simply 'Tom':

Astrud Gilberto: Aguá de Beber ('Water to Drink') This is the same woman who sang the English lyrics in the famous 'Girl from Ipanema'

Roberta Sá: Brigas Nunca Mais ('Fight No More') Paula Morelenbaum does a nice version of this too, but I couldn't find it on youtube.

Maria Bethânia: Anos Dourados ('The Golden Years')


Of a somewhat different genre (and there are many genres of music in Brasil worth exploring):

Seu Jorge: E Depois ('And Later') This guy has a deep, seductive voice, and he was in the Brazilian movie Cidade de Deus ('City of God') a few years back.

And one of my all-time Brazilian favourites! The video is funny too.

Mundo Livre S/A: Meu Esquema ('My Plan')


Switching to my own country, Bedouin Soundclash, is IMHO one of the best 21st century Canadian bands. Some of their music has a pleasing reggae feel to it.

When the Night Feels My Song

Gyasi Went Home Visiting Guyana, a country we don't hear much about in Canada.

I've also been listening to these 2 artists from Mexico:

Porter
***BTW, the lead singer is a boy--the one in the video! ...Can we say Siouxsie!

Ximena Sarinana

I heard this artist today from France, M83. What's interesting is that every track is in English. & every song is good. The one I really like is Kim & Jessie. They remind me of Ultravox meets Cocteau Twins.

Listen to them free here

Just read this article. It contains several links to the bands' myspace sites so you can hear their music. You can also go to the official site of the festival to hear some of the other bands the article mentions but has no links. My favorites: Sebastien Tellier, Emilie Simon, Brodinski, & The Shoes.

I hate pop music in the USA. Britney Spears and the like insult the intelligence. I love African music. There is a great dvd out called 'African Odyssey' showing music and dancing from South Africa. Incredible stuff. It has been shown on PBS, CBC in Canada and on the BBC in Britain.

If you like Sebastien Tellier, I'd also recommend Kelley Polar. He's American but was born in Croatia, so he qualifies for this thread

I don't even listen to FM radio anymore. I haven't for years. I listen entirely now to internet radio, in which you select what type of music you want to listen to, so I also listen to Pandora as well.

My 3 fave Mexican artists (& 3 of my fave songs by them):

Deja Te Conecto - Zoe

Dejame Entrar - Moenia

De La Calle - Ely Guerra

On the "net, you might also check out the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) programming, on both the English and French networks. The jazz programming is superb, the classical programming is superb, the pop programming is . . . well, you get the idea. The CBC is one the world's great broadcasting organizations.