Cultural Tourism

The glorious regression to the 80s continues with the appropriation of "World Music" into popular music. Just as Peter Gabriel and David Byrne utilised beats and pieces from around the world so have Vampire Weekend and MIA in recent years.

There has also been a splurge of compliations such as "African Scream Contest" and"Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Undeground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-1979" that seem to smack of smug cultural tourism, more interested in the obscurity of the music and the tales behind the tunes rather than the sounds.

But if we scrape away the pretensions (which I am never a fan of, as I heart pretensions) and listen to some of the tracks they actually turn out to be well ruddy good, such as this slab of Ethiopian jazz-funk from the 1960s.

mp3---> Alemayehu Eshete - Tey Geryeleshem (via box.net)