Added to iPod - World Music

November 10, 2008 | Filed Under Music |

On my oh-so-brief visit home, I picked up my last issue of Global Rhythm and my first issue of Songlines and their respective CDs.

The theme for Global Rhythm was China, in honor of the Olympics. I never had any gripe with GR’s music selection, but the setup of the mag itself could be frustrating. For one – there was no song/artist listing except for the CD itself. Usually there was a page in the magazine or – lately – a pull out card that listed the songs and gave a blurb about the artist. This issue had neither. This points up another problem. Here the whole magazine has articles about China and Chinese artists, but the CD only had three cuts (including Yo-Yo Ma and vocalist Sa DingDing). So you learn nothing about most of the artists you hear and hear nothing by the artists you just read about.

Songlines looks like it will be a great addition to my collection. Every artist on the CD had a writeup of some kind in the magazine. The music was excellent and wide ranging, from Calexico to the Swedish folk group Frifot to the funk/salsa of Groupo Fantasma to the Italian female vocal group Faraualla. [Note: All this music is MUCH more accessible than it sounds.] They also have Wim Wenders pick five of the tunes on the disc (his movies have the most amazing soundtracks!). The magazine itself is chock-full of articles, reviews and concert info from around the world. I’m sure I’ll be downloading some of these groups. Songlines will fill my world music niche nicely.

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