Musicians from 17 countries including Italy (Amycanbe) Brazil (New Samba Jazz) and Malta (Tribali!) uniting to support the ongoing struggle for independence for the people of West Papua. There’s a good old mix of styles going on here with tracks from Romania’s superb Shukar Collective through to tribal recordings from the Illaga Village People. Very good Check out www.freewestpapua.org.

Graham Radley

The Rough Guide series takes us straight into the feel of a Middle Eastern street café, you just want to there savouring the sounds, smells and atmosphere. Compiler Nili Belkind has picked 18 tracks which takes us from Morocco (Mayodi) across Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Greece and includes seven tracks from Egypt. My pick is Mokhtar Al Said & El Ferka El Masaya’s ‘Souhair’s Tabla’  – simple but evocative.

Graham Radley

13 tracks that feature some of West Africa’s greats in the acoustic intimacy of their music. The wonderful Babba Maal & Mansour Seck ease us in with ‘Maacina Tooro’ with Senegal being further represented by Nuru Kane and Daby Balde. Mory Kante with ‘Djou’ represents Guinea along with Djeli Moussa Diawara (joined by Bob Brozman), Grand Papa Diabate & Sona Diabate & Kante Manfila. Mali has tracks from Issa Bagayogo, Mah Dama, Coubacar Traore, Toumani Diabatre & Ballake Sissoko and Dieneba Seck while Niger’s Etran Finatwa complete this excellent line up.

Graham Radley

Absolutely gorgeous this one, vocals, full of passion and emotion, against a backdrop of equally intense but fluent music. Concha Buika’s parents are from Equatorial Guinea but she grew up alongside the Gypsy community on Majorca and it’s flamenco to the fore here. As you might expect the influences filter through (she’s also had success on the Euro house scene) so jazz and funk melt easily into the Spanish vibe but to be honest that voice could take you anywhere. Recommended.

Graham Radley

Highly significant group to come out of Zimbabwe in the 1970’s who used the political upheaval of the time as a positive force within their adventurous music which brought together the different rhythms of the region. 20 re-mastered tracks taken from 1974’s Chipo Chiroorwa LP and from singles recorded between ’76 and ’79 showcasing their mellifluous, dancing, guitar led funky African music. Excellent.

Graham Radley

Ok what I have is a 12 track sampler taken from this series. This first wave of releases, which have not been available in the UK before, will feature Chucho Valdez, Guapacha with Chuco Valdez, Irakere, Los Papines & Ruben Gonzalez and Orquesta Cubana De Musica Moderna. Further releases will include Los Amigos, Cachao and Ruben Gonzalez. The quality is of course superb.

Graham Radley

Yet more excellent roma tracks, but this time more on the euro remix side of things. Included are !DelaDap, Shantel (also featured here with an excellent remix of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band), Balkan Beat Box, Anselmo Crew, Magnifico & Turbolentza, Kistehen Tanczenehar, Luminescent Orchestrii and Gipsy.cz. A portion of proceeds goes to the Roma Education Fund.

Graham Radley

Subtitled ‘Playful tracks from around the world’ we start with ‘Animal Crackers’ from the aptly named Wee Hairy Beasties (featuring the Mekon’s Jon Langford). Some tracks like The Be Good Tanya’s ‘The Littlest Birds’ are more familiar than others while Quartetto Cetra deliver an Italian version of ‘Old Macdonald’ and kids themselves join in on Les P’tits Loups du Jazz and ‘L’Otorhinoceros’. Be warned if you listen to this with your kids you might find you keep singing ‘no more monkeys jumping on the bed’ for the rest of the day! Good fun.

Graham Radley

There is a really brilliant number of gypsy music releases just now and this one is straight out the top drawer. The village of Clejani in Southern Romania is the birthplace of an amazing number of brilliant musicians, including Taraf de Haidouks, their arranger and musician Ionitsa, with his wife Viorica, decided to branch out and form Clejani Express here we get both highlights from recent years and some brand new recordings. Top class.

Graham Radley

Third album from Ex-Wise Heads, I’m not familiar with the previous two but this is a thoughtful, innovative release centred around Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree) and Geoff Leigh (Henry Cow) . The sound is one of rhythmically driven ambient, electro, jazzy, global interplay which moves you, chills you and comes up fresh each listen. I especially like ‘Winter Of Discontent’ with some great trumpet from Ian Dixon.

Graham Radley