The Ten Best World Music Albums

By TIM WALKER

1 On the Road Baaba Maal

While Baaba Maal’s profile is rising in the UK, the Senegalese singer-songwriter hasn’t released a studio album since 2000. This is a collection of live tracks from the past decade, available from his website www.baabamaal.tv.

5.99 (download)

2 Segu Blue Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba

Bassekou Kouyate made his name playing ngoni – an instrument similar to the lute – alongside Ali Farka Toure. This is his first album with his band, which features three fellow ngoni players from Segu, Mali.

out/here rec, 7.97

3 Cansei De Ser Sexy CSS

Their recent second album, Donkey, is a disappointment, so buy the first CSS record instead; the Brazilian art-rockers lit a firework under the staid UK scene with this spiky, spontaneous debut.

Sub Pop, 7.98

4 Music Hole Camille

Camille’s latest album – her first largely in English – is a breath of fresh air up the skirt of pop. This, the French a cappella singer’s third studio LP, consists of almost nothing but her multifaceted vocals.

Charisma, 8.98

5 Seun Kuti and Fela’s Egypt 80

Seun, youngest son of the late superstar Fela Kuti, releases his first album with his father’s band, Egypt 80. The scion of a grand Afrobeat dynasty, Seun cuts his own groove with the band he’s been in since he was nine.

Disorient, 13.99

6 Nigeria Special Afro-sounds 1970-76

Two CDs of “un-reissued and forgotten” Nigerian highlife, Afro- beat and blues from a rich period of West African guitar playing – a time when our charts were full of Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend.

Soundway, 11.98

7 Venus on Earth Dengue Fever

LA guitarist Zac Holtzman started Dengue Fever to revive pre- Khmer Rouge Cambodian pop, using trad-rock instrumentation and vocals from Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol. This is the band’s third album.

M80, 9.98

8 The Very Best of Ethiopiques

The sound of Addis Ababa in the 1960s and Seventies, collected and curated by the Buda Musique label in Paris over the past 11 years. This is a selection of highlights from the 20-plus volumes it has released.

Buda Musique, 6.98

9 La Radiolina Manu Chao

This is Chao’s third solo album since his debut, Clandestino, in 1998. It consists of 21 warm, acoustic tracks from the French- Basque superstar, and lyrics infused as ever with love and left- wing politics.

Nacional Records, 8.98

10 Alive Sa Dingding

These traditional Chinese melodies and Buddhist mantras played on electronic instruments have sold two million copies in China, and earned the 24-year-old Mongolian a reputation as “the Asian Bjork”.

Wrasse Records, 9.98

The Ten Best is edited by Rebecca Armstrong r.armstrong@independent.co.uk

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