A gorgeous album laid out on a sumptuously arranged base of small-ensemble strings. Could this be Natacha’s best album yet?

If ever there was a record that truly deserved the ‘world beat’ label then this is it. Latin America and the Middle East collide on this Spanish guitar driven jazz medley

Network records have kept up the profoundly high level of quality control exhibited on the first two instalments of this exquisite series

For her second album, Cape Verdean singer-songwriter Carmen Souza takes a jazz-tinged step away from her roots, although one foot remains firmly in the melancholy essence of her native islands

Clear, punchy jazz with heavy Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavours makes for a deeply rewarding album

“I believe I’ve survived for a reason to tell my story, to touch lives”. So says Emmanuel Jal on the title track to Warchild and he will

The most recent in what seems like a bottomless well of great music of all styles from Nigeria is coming your way soon from crate diggers extraordinaire Soundway Records. Prepare yourself for Psychedelic Afro-rock and fuzz funk in 1970s Nigeria

As the many comments on a piece on fly some time back about hiplife testify, this is a genre that inspires passion and pride as well as bigtime dancing. Outhere Records bring the undergound scene and the big stars to the world’s attention with this compilation

Comparisons with Cape Verde’s Queen of morna, Cesaria Evora, are inevitable and hard to avoid. But if there’s one thing better than having one evocative interpreter of the islands’ soulful folk music, and that’s being blessed with two of them

As everyone is talking about Africa these days, especially during the African Cup of Nations, what an excellent time to release this 2 CD retrospective with the longest title ever

Brittle sounds tumble around each other restlessly in this sparky set of soulful cuts from the Nigerian pioneer’s early career in which everything clatters

Dynamic and directly affecting Ghanaian music born of troubled times which shines intrinsically on merit, performance and honesty

The third album from the Israeli singer whose aim is to keep the Spanish-Jewish Ladino tradition alive, is another small step closer to the classic album we are waiting for

Ostensibly conceived to take advantage of the latest vogue for ‘bellydance’ music, this snappy set of Arabic instrumentals is a rhythmic delight from start to finish.

After more than 60 years of making music, octogenarian Congolese singer and guitarist Antoine “Wendo” Kolosoy is still going strong, and this half-retrospective/half-soundtrack is a welcome primer on his remarkable career

Stunning South African singer Simphiwe Dana returns to the UK next month for a show at Queen Elizabeth Hall, here her second album on Gallo gets a once over

This new album IM is dedicated to tragic events in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and of one particular victim, Zawadi Mongane who Bugge heard interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last year

To say we’re fans of Eatdubafrobeat is an understatement as we’ve been playing this one endlessly since its arrival and it must be an early shout for album of the year?

Pulling off a Fela compilation is no easy thing. For a start, most of his classic songs from the seventies are an unhelpful 10 minutes plus in length. But if anyone is going to be able to do it, it should be Wrasse Records

A gem of a record packed full of South African charm guaranteed to satisfy with its delivery, invigorating grooves and thoughtful lyrics

Remarkable sounds from rejuvenated Algerian big-band of chaabi veterans fusing Jewish and Arabic music with jazz, tango and a little French chanson to inspire and uplift

Fela managed it and Mulatu too, now Steve Reid unites jazz with Africa.

Africa’s greatest superstar and elder statesman of global sounds wears his crossover obligations lightly in a back to basics, stripped down pop album

Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade has just been named as a nominee for Best Newcomer in the 2008 Awards For World Music, and her classy album Navega has a musical depth and consistency to more than warrant that honour

Yes they are Bedouins, and yes they really do use jerry-cans as a percussive instrument, alongside clay jugs, coffee grinders, ammunition boxes and anything else that will add rhythmic value to their addictive North African dance music

The British Ambassador to Mali and Senegal abandons tales of desert bandits to wander over to the dancefloor, there he will dance amid a throng of impossibly elegant Senegalese women of all ages, a few dapper older gents and some Western music fans aware that in the warm night air of the Just4U club in Dakar in February, finding the distinguished members of Orchestra Baobab playing this hot is akin to wandering into a pub in Camden only to find the Kinks are playing their best known numbers but better than ever

As Jeff Bridges might once have said: Rock ‘n’ Riti - phew! Put Justin Adams’s Bo Diddley-meets-buzzsaw blues guitar with Juldeh Camara’s hyperactive single-string violin playing and you’ve got one of the most exhilarating boundary crossing releases of the year

The cover of the album doesn’t augur too well — Akim looks like a young Bill Murray who’s just got lucky in a tart’s boudoir. So it’s a relief to hear his extraordinary voice and violin playing gratifyingly wrapped in some sweet and catchy tunes

In what has been an astonishing year for African compilations, this collection of mid-’70s singles from Zimbabwe’s ground-breaking electric mbira group must rank as one of the most vital

European Jazz with a North African twist. Take one East German, a Morrocan and a Spaniard…

There’s a real buzz about this collection of classic Ethiopian tracks from the early ’70s — Elvis Costello has even been persuaded to supply the puff for the front cover — and the fuss is fully justified for what must surely be a contender for compilation of the year

Charlie Gillett mixes the well-known with underground discoveries, crosses continents, sifts thousands of songs, balances the sexes and blends contemporary and traditional on this year’s crop

Su Hart and Martin Cradick’s lively Celtic-meets-African band’s engaging sound is best experienced in concert, and this enjoyable live album captures the spirit of the Baka collective at its finest

Massukos is more than a band — it’s a living breathing force for good in Mozambique, and Bumping is a jubilant, uplifting musical torch bearer for one of the poorest parts of Africa

A fine album of West African acoustica from the American-based kora maestro

Embracing the sound of New York’s blooming jazz barbershop quartet scene during the 1940s and 1950s, this album by the South African foursome takes the jazz sound to the home land

Dee Dee has just released a wonderful album recorded in her spiritual homeland of Mali. Of course she was physically born in Memphis, TN but she explains on the DVD that as soon as she saw the bright Malian red earth, she felt that she had arrived home

Lucky Dube is the great reggae man from the African continent — surpassing Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly. With his epic sound, Dube has been at the forefront of the musical genre for over 20 years, releasing almost as many albums during this career

The ageing lion of South African jazz flugelhorn showed he still has all his own teeth as he scatted, sang, danced, joked, chided, mimed, agitated, funked, impersonated and swung through the night

Now those with good memories will recall Gilles Peterson interviewed her at the back end of last year on his show. Why the album has taken all this time to surface, I can’t tell you but it’s definitely worth the wait

Analog Africa has reached back into the 1970s and made us an offering of recordings from Zimbabwe’s Green Arrows. Perhaps they’re not well known outside of the region or thirty years later but they were the ones creating the quintessential Zimbabwean sound you hear today from the likes of Oliver Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo. The Green Arrows were THE group in 70s Rhodesia.

After the success of ‘Slowlife’, assisted by MTV’s unfathomable restriction on playing the video, we’ve been looking forward to the release of this album with the help of a few big name friends

Scandinavian jazz and funk harmonises with African percussion, bringing a marvellous fusion of assorted vintage and contemporary elements.

Funky, addictive utterly Malian and with a kick like snorting home-made chilli sauce. This is the CD you are going to get sick of copying for your mates this summer

Rachid Taha stormed the Barbican and got this venue’s sometimes stiff crowd on its feet by his second song and didn’t look back after that

Although Tinariwen have played the UK lots of times, it has usually been part of a mixed bill and so here was a rare chance to see a long set from the Tamashek sensations. With pretty much the entire UK press behind them (and not just the ‘world music’ crowd), there was a pretty heavy level of anticipation…

If like me you always thought the rumba was a strictly Cuban affair then Cafe Noir will show you otherwise

Zim mixes up South African folk traditions with classical western music and avant-garde jazz with varying amounts of horns, strings and djembe.

Nneka returns with the release of second single, a new mix of one of the top tracks on her début album.

This compilation of some of Mapfumo’s best tracks was originally released in 2003 but is available in the UK for the first time this year.

Things could have been so different for Rachid Taha. Too ‘Algerian’ for French rock and too punk for rai: it’s a testament to his bloody-mindedness, stamina and unique ability to craft a top tune that we not only know his name but celebrate him as one of the best musicians associated with Algeria

Bassekou Kouyaté is better known as the ngoni player on seminal recordings by Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré. Segu Blue is his assured, elegant and long overdue debut

With all the hype surrounding Tinariwen’s third international release, long-time fans could be forgiven for expecting to hear the lost desert album of Radiohead. Thank God it’s still the boys in blue’s trademark sound instead

One of the first words you will hear when coming to Zanzibar is ‘Karibu’. Like the breeze of the Kaskazi trade winds, it is a warm Swahili welcome to the coast of East Africa. Already I can feel a sense of excitement in the air: the Sauti za Busara “Sounds of Wisdom” festival is about to begin

A few years ago a group of hoteliers got together in the pleasant but unremarkable stopover of Segou along the banks of the Niger river to work out how to get people to stay for a while in their town. Thus the Festival sur le Niger was born and this year it burst its banks

Quite possibly the most difficult festival to get to on earth, certainly the most fun, The Festival in the Desert is held at Essakane every January. Head for Timbuktu and when you have reached the middle of nowhere, keep going for a few more hours of treacherous driving up and down sand dunes and you have the festival that makes Glastonbury seem about as adventurous as a trip to the local garden centre

What a daunting challenge, trying to cover the best of the new generation of young artists from the hip-hop, kwaito and dancehall scenes across a continent as large and diverse as Africa.

Ambient, techno, African roots and folk with elements of progressive rock from an artist better known for writing scores for film.

Manifest Tone Vol.1 generates images and feelings that originated in Lagos during the 70s but which have been splendidly re-produced in 21st Century New Jersey.

Niwel Tsumbu Duo have so many roots it’s difficult to know where to start - funk, jazz, central african guitars, Irish percussion, and packed with energy and soul it immediately stands out.

An enthralling feast of West African music filled the newly developed Roundhouse, with traditional and contemporary styles intertwining from both established and emerging artists.

After a five-year absence, the “Bob Dylan of Africa” returns with a smooth and accessible new album that takes him firmly into mainstream territory

If you’re interested in the musical development of the popular music of this vast, troubled, yet joyously vibrant country during the golden years of the early pre- and post-independence era from the mid ’50s to the mid ’80s, you’ve been more than well-served these last eighteen months or so

Iconic, essential, quite possibly still a ‘work of lunatic scholarship’, The Rough Guide to World Music is back but what kind of shape is it in all these years later?

Although they will no doubt be compared to Tinariwen — Tartit have been around a similar length of time and sprang from the same experience of civil war and living in camps — theirs is a gentler but no less compelling sound

The Idan Raichel Project are currently taking their native Israel by storm, and this very sophisticated mix of Middle Eastern and Western styles is destined to repeat the success elsewhere

2007 is shaping up to be the year of the Touareg takeover. Fortunately the appetite for the heavy, bluesy, desert rock made famous by Tinariwen is matched by the supply of fine bands.

The top Palestinian hip hop trio are preparing to take the rest of the world by storm with a convincing set of political and social raps. The band are going to dedicate three copies of the album to our competition winners, so read on…

Paris-based Cameroonian chanteuse returns to her native land to create her own unique rough guide to the country’s roots music.

Diwân 2 sees Rachid Taha reclaiming the older tunes of his childhood —but not without occasional touches of his angry punk persona surfacing just in time to avoid nostalgia

The singer songwriter boom continues in the UK but here at Fly, we like to look a little further a field sometimes. Nibs van der Spuy gently weaves his native Southern Africa into his guitar-led sound to create an album of disarming beauty

Los Desterrados, from not-so-exotic north London, have produced an album of underground Judeo-Spanish re-imaginings, slipping skilfully between epochs and musical traditions

Anyone who has seen El Tanbura in action will know that this is an amazing bunch of passionate musicians to hear. Can an album match up?

Continuing the global trip, Rough Guides get in touch with Planet Rock

To celebrate 20 years of recording, World Circuit will be releasing a superb double CD collection on the 16th October

In a world awash with free cover-mount compilations and triple CDs for a tenner, why on earth would you buy Charlie Gillett’s latest round up? Perhaps because you really do get what you pay for…

Live 8 seems a long time ago doesn’t it? Remember Bob’s line up in London’s Hyde Park, Berlin, Paris, Philadelphia and Rome? And the question: “Where are the black and African artists?”

This album has a new take on a very ancient tradition. The kora and the griot culture presides over this musical meeting in the masterful hands of Seckou Keita from Senegal, but it’s teased and challenged by other instruments and musical traditions, represented by the Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai, Italian double bassist Davide Mantovani and Gambian percussionist Surahata Susso.

Beautiful, smart and soulful as southern cornbread, Nneka could be the new Lauren Hill. Everything is right about this stunning debut: a great new voice, conscious lyrics and more hooks than a fishing tackle shop in the Hook of Holland

If you were lucky enough to catch these guys on tour with Baka Beyond, you will know that this is unrelentingly upbeat music bursting with sunshine, like powerful rays piercing the canopy of their native rainforest

After five long years, Gigi’s follow up to her eponymous debut takes that winning formula and beefs it up still further under the eye of uber-producer Bill Laswell

Continuing the excellent series of compilations, this one covers some great tunes from Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal.

The uncomfortable truth is that the latest single from Nneka has a dodgy cover [not the picture with this piece], but don’t let that put you off.

A modern roots and jazz approach to traditional music produces a captivating début album

Wagëblë have been around for nearly 10 years but haven’t yet made waves on the international scene with their “Rap Afro”. It’s strange, seeing as they’re so popular in Senegal, which has been the centre of African hip hop for many years, and they’ve performed in northern Europe and shared the spotlight with Daara J from Senegal and Tanzania’s Xplastaz.

As African nations bow out of the World Cup, having inspired and delighted millions with their tenacity and skill, The African Game sets out to document the road to the World Cup and what African football means in Africa

There is no end to the treasures on that distant clutch of islands Cap Vert (Cape Verde) and Gabriela Mendes is the latest in a long line of traditional singers willing to share those riches far and wide. Traditional mornas, sweetly sung and gently accompanied by nimbly picked guitars are at the heart of these ten songs

There is usually at least one essential Rough Guide album each year. This year’s first major contender is one that explores the diversity of one of East Africa’s musical powerhouses.

Those who know Thomas Mapfumo know him as ‘the Lion of Zimbabwe’, and for good reason: the sixty-one year old has been a champion of Zimbabwean culture (and he was once imprisoned for it). At one time, he was releasing an album a year and playing five nights a week on an unforgiving international tour schedule

In this beguiling album, singer Julia Sarr and guitarist Patrice Larose combine flamenco and Senegalese musical traditions to come out with a familiar in places, yet totally alien, experience

A near faultless album and a creative statement of pan-African vision

This group are veterans of the South African music scene, formed over forty years ago and still going strong

An interesting and informative snapshot of the flourishing continent-wide hip hop scene in Africa.

Tanzanian Bongo Flava seems to be gathering momentum outside the continent and if the numbers of Fly readers airing their views about this music are anything to go by, it’s moving and shaking its way round the world

The celebrated Egyptian composer/arranger carefully navigates the choppy waters of World Music fusion with a subtly integrated and delicately arranged marriage of styles.

As keenly as the loss of this great artist has been felt around the world, there has also been an intense anticipation surrounding his last ever recording. We now know that the world’s most famous farmer was aware of his impending death in the last few years of his life and it is tempting to see the late burst of recordings and performances as his declared legacy

Darfur is a story that makes the headlines every few months but things only seem to be getting worse for the people living in a situation that was recognised by the United Nations way back in 2004 as “the number one humanitarian crisis in the world.”

Can’t say I know what Afro lounge is, but I know a man that does.

A welcome return to form and return to her North African pop roots for the icon of musical multiculturalism

The octogenarian Empress of Raï goes back to Oran, the birthplace of Algerian pop, for her long-awaited return to recording

If you’ve been enjoying the excellent Lekan Babalola 12 inchers on Lex 51 Records you may have been wondering if there were any other artists on the label. Well wonder no more.

Blending Arabic lyrics, full horns section, heavy guitars and driving, late-90s left-field electronic beats along with some well-placed samples, Orange Blossom are something akin to Natasha Atlas on an angry day.

Norwegian producer Dalminjo (aka Ole Roar Granli) has his first album in two years coming out on Deeplay.

We have another look at this album ahead of a few live dates in the UK

You can’t ignore Amadou & Mariam at the moment, so why try?

“I want to show how far I can push the improvisation, I aim for sheer technical brilliance.”

Tsotsi, a new film from South Africa, may just be the best film to have come out of the country.

Second volume in the Congotronics series, where traditional, rural Congo collides head-on with the urban rush of modern Kinshasa

From the heart of Soho, Digger Elias at Wyld Pytch has just released the best to date in the Lekan Babalola 12” series.

“Thanks to the all-powerful who gives us the power to continue the fight,” that’s how ALIF begin their sleeve notes. And there’s fighting-talk throughout their album Dakamerap.

La Reunion is an unusual place: a beautiful tropical island in the Indian Ocean, fertile, but with an active volcano and in the pathway of cyclones. It is now favoured by French tourists mainly but its inhabitants are able to trace their ancestors back to foreign lands themselves beginning way back in the 17th century. French immigrants, Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Malabar Indians all give the island its ethnic mix.

While 2005 has thrown up an almost limitless supply of Afro-beat compilations, the hot sound on the streets of Lagos has long been Fuji. Adé Bantu was born and grew up in Nigeria but moved to Cologne where he made a name for himself on the German hip hop scene. Hooking up with the cream of the Fuji scene back in Lagos, he has produced an essential recording full of great tunes and bristling with life

Out here Records are again breaking ground when it comes to releasing compilations of real sounds from the African continent. This time it’s African Rebel Music - Roots Reggae and Dancehall — an informed and thoughtful grouping from North, South, East and West

The Soundway label from Brighton know their stuff and they’ve got one of Hectic’s favourites to remix a couple of the tracks off their Ghana Soundz Volume 2 compilation album.

Moffou, his last album, was one of the most beautiful records ever made. Receiving its successor was like queuing up to see Taxi Driver II; how could it possibly live up to expectations?

As one who has to confess to coming late to the Souad Massi bandwagon, I must confess I have been bowled over by this album of swirling strings, poignant lyrics and passionate singing named after the artist’s first child

The word ‘Orientation’ derives from the practice of aligning churches to point eastwards and carries the added connotations of a direction to travel in, knowledge of where you came from and the beliefs that one holds dear. Thione Seck has made explicit his love of Bollywood and Egyptian music and made one of the most important records of the year in the process

This is not the first afrobeat compilation, nor is it even the first to feature remixes by well-known DJs but you do get an eclectic selection of afrobeat classics and there are big guns aplenty on the remix CD including Paul Oakenfold

If some recent traditional albums give the listener a feeling of tranquility as if reaching an isolated but welcoming village as dusk settles, Lamp Fall by contrast is like arriving in a bustling city full of unique and chaotic possibilities

Flower power is at its peak in Haight Ashbury, the Rolling Stones are answering Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band with their own psychedlic masterpiece and Folonho ‘Ginger’ Johnson releases this long overlooked gem of funky African music in London

Charismatic and soulful London-based singer Netsayi gives us a foretaste of her album due out next year

This is a delightful album full of great tunes and unexpected variety. More than a thousand primary-school-aged children across London, the Home Counties and Cheshire sifted through African music albums and plumped for hip hop, various traditional forms and a little bit of novelty

Tiken Jah Fakoly is following in Alpha Blondy’s footsteps producing reggae that’s passionate and angry with a contemporary message from Africa

The soundtrack to the new Jim Jarmusch film is a heady cocktail of rock, opera (but no rock opera thankfully) and ethio-jazz courtesy of Mulatu Astatke

We have given away three copies of this elegantly seductive introduction to the work of Daby Balde (a rising star in Dakar, a soon-to-be star everywhere else).

If you wanted to make a CD of the last year of tunes for Fly from a global perspective, you would struggle to do better than this outstanding compilation. A vast amount of music goes to Charlie, gets listened to and filtered for his shows and then filtered again for his compilations. This really is the best of the last year and a good few pointers for the next one too

“A burning voice providing us with reasons to live …” that was the first quote I read on Lura when researching the young Portuguese/ Cape Verdean singer who seems to have shimmied on to the Lusaphone music scene, and now the world music stage.

Some would say the late seventies and early eighties were the musical hey-day of East Africa. The Zaireans, Tanzanians and Kenyans were travelling in the region, playing regularly to dedicated fans, exchanging styles and influences, collaborating and recording together and making the East swing

Sudan has many faces: the Christian south and the Muslim north, the African and the Arab, the older traditionalists and the militarised youth. All of them affected and disaffected by Africa’s longest running civil war. A return to normal life, despite peace deals, ceasefires and agreements, still hangs in the balance

In Seven Gates, virtuoso qanun player Abdullah Chhadeh creates a beguiling and enticing soundscape of one of the world’s oldest cities

The legendary afro beat drummer Tony Allen has been mentioned a few times on Fly recently as he supported Dizzee Rascal as part of the Africa Remix festival in London and then he went to Paris for a show at the completely renovated 1950s cinema called L'Etage

From the first few, sharply beautiful notes of this exquisite pairing, it is already clear that this album will be one of the key records of the year. Ali Farka Touré's guitar and Toumani Diabaté's Kora emit a phenomenal series of notes that interlock with each other like two intricate cogs in some otherworldly machine.

Sudan. Bigger than Western Europe / scene of the 21st Century’s first genocide/ one of the world’s greatest ancient civilisations/ meeting point of countless cultures/ fundamentalist censorship and flourishing culture. Sudan is so vast, complex and contradictory that one could only have the sketchiest expectations of this LP. Well, forget all that for a moment, this is a collection of great tracks you will love.

I was walking down a Soho street and heard a man say: "Editing is all about politics..." And I thought how this applied 100% to the film Just Peace that I'd just seen and, I suppose, to the story of Sudan as a whole.

Cecile Kayirebwa must have seen profound change, hardship and tragedy all around her since her birth in Rwanda in 1946. The 60s saw the end of the Tutsi monarchy and independence for the country when Cecile Kayirebwa was working as a social worker. She then fled in the early 70s to Belgium after the outbreak of civil war, where she lived for the next twenty years. And of course the genocide in 1994.

Neba Solo has been breaking with tradition from day one. He plays the balafon, but not as we know it. Not only does he change the traditional tuning on his big bass balafon, and adopts the highly unusual technique of playing the instrument from left to right, but, well, there's a lot more to it than that...

Drawn from the broad panorama of Songlines' 50 best African albums, The Essential African Album scrupulously includes East, West, North, South, traditional and modern music from the giant continent.

Roots music doesn't get much more roots than when fifteen musicians crammed into in a tiny room and playing traditional African music are recorded using the most basic of equipment

So it seems like I'm one of the last to know about Sekouba Bambino. The Beat Magazine was calling him "among the best of Africa's solo vocal performers" in 2002, and Charlie Gillett was raving about him in 2003. Now I'm doing it in 2005.

Luaka Bop's Bomaye Compilation plays like the soundtrack to an almost perfect summer day with nothing better to do than let the beats wash over you.

Gilles Peterson in Brazil was a huge success so it comes as no surprise that Ether Records are repeating the formula for an African outing. Gilles is not only a world class authority on Brazilian music, he has created an entire mini industry around him devoted to diggin' in the crates from São Paulo to Belém, so how does he fare in Africa?

Putumayo's World Groove is a 2-CD compilation of music from around the world and features twenty tracks with a very wide range of styles. It's erratic in some places, excellent in others, but fans of electronica and the eclectic will certainly find plenty to enjoy here.

This is the deeply moving tale of a band of refugees from the terrible civil war that devastated Sierra Leone. The documentary follows them from camp to camp in Guinea, where they are living as displaced persons, until their return to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

Apparently so many of Djamel's fans asked him about a live CD, he thought he just had to do something about it. Not only is the CD Djamel Laroussi - Live the result, there is also a DVD of the show from Stadgarten, Cologne recorded in October 2003 to go with it.

Bonga Kwenda, usually known simply as Bonga, is a veteran of the "world music" scene, and the semba music he sings is a wonderful example of a fusion spanning three continents which is all the more vibrant for its ancient roots.

"This is music that has been taken from us," says Ali Farka Toure of the blues and this double LP release of impossible-to-find early recordings is claiming it back.

A howl of Arabpean rage set to fuck-you rock and roll. TÈkitoi? confirms Rachid Taha's status as one of the most important rebel voices in Europe and the Middle East.

The emergence of South Africa's urban dance music began with kwaito as Apartheid was crumbling. Once the painful politics of colour were over, black people were free to create, make music and party.

It is hard to imagine a more powerful vocal form of music than the massed power of a Zulu group in full swing. But how would it fare when mixed with an eclectic range of beats and music?

Out of the turmoil of the Ivory Coast, emerges this incredible voice: comparable in range and power to Angelique Kidjo. Effortlessly skipping between languages and African musical influences, Dobet brings to mind the great Miriam Makeba. How can someone generate such comparisons after only releasing one LP? Welcome to the world of Dobet GnahorÈ.

In releasing Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap from Tanzania Out Here Records have cottoned on to this phenomenon coming out of Tanzania. The 14 tracks give anyone outside Tanzania and the East African region a feeling for the scene today -- a sense of the sheer number of artists out there and the variety of rap styles and sounds they're producing.

Julien Jacob has created his own language to express his message of peace while leaving the business of interpretation up to the listener. Originally from BÈnin, he could have chosen one of the 50 or so languages spoken there and it would have had the same effect on all but those who speak that language.

After selling 300,000 copies of their blockbuster release Music from the Coffee Lands, Putumayo are hoping to pull off the same trick with this cleverly themed collection of tracks from Africa, Latin America and India. And let's not forget the influence of the Swiss and the Belgians when it comes to chocolate -- and so, for good measure -- their influence is felt here too.

While Africa is full of elected officials who wish they were kings, Femi is the heir to his father's throne but does everything in his power to deserve his good fortune. He practices longer, works out harder, prepares more rigorously and generally goes the extra mile in everything he does as a musician.

After the famine comes the feast. Coinciding with the Fela festivities at the Barbican, this Afrobeat collection has distinguished itself in a suddenly crowded field with two unique selling points...

Femi Kuti has been as blessed by the prodigious talent running through his veins as he has been cursed by living in a creative world circumscribed by everyone's expectations of him as the son of the extraordinary Fela Kuti.

In the DVD which accompanies his latest release, 'King of Raï' Khaled compares the production of an album to both a fable and a country. If this album is a fable, the moral of the story is that we all live happily ever after. If this album is a country, get me a passport.

An astonishingly broad array of artists deriving deep inspiration from Afrobeat make the first of these CDs constantly surprising, while the second disc goes back to the source.

Mory Kanté will always be known as the man who unleashed Yéké Yéké on the world -- dance music would never be the same and neither would African music. After half a dozen albums in the same vein and two decades later, he follows Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour and Khaled in producing a more roots-oriented album.

It's Saturday morning and instead of getting out and about, I am glued to my sofa listening to this fabulous release. Chief Xcel has found a perfect formula for mixing Fela.

There are so many anthologies and best of albums featuring Manu Dibango that it is hard to see why the world needs another one but I think Rough Guides may have just found a way to slip in one more.

Malick Sidibé has won the 2003 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography and this book is a celebration of his work.

Dorothy Masuka's latest collection celebrates a life, a career, triumph over exile and an enduring voice.

A passionate and varied album and anyone who parts with the asking price is contributing to a more than worthy campaign

A well constructed and deeply cinematic album of Middle Eastern flavours from this talented Frenchman.

The packaging of this compilation, produced by World Music Network for Oxfam, spookily reminiscent of a guide book, gives a clue as to the contents - a scrupulously comprehensive geographical survey of Arabic music, which takes in the major traditional and contemporary currents from Morocco to Iraq.

Anyone who has the superb Pirate's Choice reissue by Orchestra Baobab will immediately recognise the work of Malick Sidibé. André Magnin has edited a definitive selection of photos in this Scalo hardback.