Genuinely amazing Afropop

Two other amazing compilations: _Ouelele_--worth it for the Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble track alone, which is like Tony Conrad playing with Africa 70--and the new _Nigeria 70_ on Afrostrut, which gets major points for including Sandra & Fela's kick-ass 15- minute jam "Upside Down," and also has some ultra-heavy stuff by Ofo the Black Company, etc.

Also highly recommended: most of the _Ethiopiques_ compilations of early-'70s Ethiopian jazz and funk, on Buda Musique. Start with vol. 1 or 3; skip vol. 2 until you're sure you want it.

Try also the Discoteques comps--my favorite is Discoteque 72, but all have their moments. (72 contains this UNREAL guitar jam, I forget the title, but it's distorted and raw and amazing.) What I'm curious about here, though, is the line about "genuinely excit[ing] and pushes boundaries (trad or electronica), rather than the staid 'World Music' substitutes"--by what standards do you mean, exactly? Like, S. African stuff is "staid" because Paul Simon happened upon it in the mid-80s? If so, that's pretty faulty reasoning.

Ethiopiques is fucking awesome - I definitely second that.

In reply to Matos: if that was my reasoning then it would be pretty faulty of course. But, rather crucially, it's not what I said, or at least intended to say.

My bugbear is with the way the music of the 'world' (ie outside the West) is largely (and, I repeat, largely) selected for promotion in the West seemingly upon criteria which are not only irrelevant but also faintly patronising. The main criterion I refer to seems to be that the music must sound suitably 'ethnic' ie how Europeans/Americans EXPECT African/Asian/whatever music to sound. The Music In My Head compilation was so eye-opening for me because it placed musical ingenuity and plain brilliance ahead of ethnic 'worthiness' or 'suitability' in the choice of tracks.

Similarly, upon visiting Asia and listening to some of the Bollywood film music sold there, I realised how narrowly bracketed are the releases that get through to the West, or at least the ones that are readily available. Some of the stuff I heard sounded like a heady concoction of Kate Bush and Popul Vuh rather than anything specifically 'Indian', but was quite simply mind-blowing.

my favorite is Discoteque 72, but all have their moments. (72 contains this UNREAL guitar jam, I forget the title, but it's distorted and raw and amazing.)

pivi et les baladins "samba", i bet - amazing track, that, starts almost like a 60s garage rock tune with some killer fuzz guitar and then turns completely sideways with some great organ, too. that whole comp is full of amazingly intricate guitar work that might even smoke the guys in fela's band.

to the original question - ethiopiques! ethiopiques! i would especially recommend volume 3, followed by mahmoud ahmed's _ere mela mela_, an album that had me alternating between awe and jaw- dropped ecstacy the first time i heard it.