Countdown the best world music albums with WMN's audio chart. September's chart features Staff Benda Bilili, Tom Paley, Gurrumul and more.

  1. 1. Staff Benda Bilili - Bouger Le Monde

    The album Bouger Le Monde is rooted around rumba grooves, overlaid with colourful vocals and extraordinary tin-can guitar solos. It was recorded in Kinshasa and contains eleven superb songs featuring new and returning band members. 

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  2. 2. Tom Paley's Old-Time Moonshine Revue - Roll on, Roll On

    Tom Paley is a true American folk hero, a contemporary to the likes of Woody Guthrie himself. Nowadays he lives in London and continues to play furiously fine fiddle, banjo and guitar music. His voice is full of nostalgia and old time goodness. Though an octogenarian this album is set to be a hit on new roots label Hornbeam Recordings. 

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  3. 3. Tinariwen - Tassili

    The Tuareg - Berber band called Tinariwen recorded their new album 'Tassili' in Tassili n'Ajjer, a national park in Algeria. Tinariwen’s music and sensibility have always been close to the American Blues and on ‘Tassili’ they re-enact the emotions of an individual who finds himself face to face with loneliness and doubt, the prisoner of (‘Djeredjere’) a difficult circumstance. But that individual also manages to find hope in the strength of his community (‘Imidiwan Wan Sahara’) or in the simple pleasure afforded by insignificant daily moments, as on the song ‘Takest Tamidarest’.

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  4. 4. Krar Collective - Ethiopia Super Krar

    Krar Collective serve up mind-blowing Ethiopian grooves on this excellent debut. Armed with their krar, kebero drums and stunning vocals, they have created Ethiopia Super Krar – an album rooted in tradition, and soaked with attitude.

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  5. 5. Ondatrópica - Ondatrópica

    Colombian musician, Mario Galeano, the force behind the band Frente Cumbiero, and English producer Will Holland (A.K.A. Quantic), have joined forces to create the Ondatrópica project. 'Bomba Trópica' is taken from their first album which is out now and is sure to be a hit.

  6. 6. Lokkhi Terra - Che Guava's Rickshaw Diaries

    Lokhi Terra's excellent new album, Che Guava's Rickshaw Diaries offers a free-wheeling Bangladeshi interpretation of Afro-Latin vibes. 'Shadher Lau' is an up-beat track with rippling guitar and a postive sounding female chorus. 

  7. 7. Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat - Twinklings Of Hope

    The Iranian singing sisters Marjan and Mahsa Vahdat are denied a stage in their homeland. The regime in Iran has since the Islamic revolution in 1979 banned female vocal performance. The sisters perfrom in Europe, Amercia, Asia and some parts of the Middle East. A sitar, ney and persian drum 'daf' accompany their singing. 

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  8. 8. Stealing Sheep - Into The Diamond Sun

    Liverpool band, Stealing Sheep, produce folktronica with a indie-rock feel. Their layered vocals and thumping beats mix well with a soft folk-y feel that threads through the textures. Into The Diamond Sun is their long-awaited debut album. 

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  9. 9. Gurrumul - Rrakala

    This album by Geoggret Gurrumul Yunupingu is titled ' Rrakala' because it refers to a sub-group of people within the Gumatj clan. Gurumul's songwriting and choice of songs refelcts deeper into his Aboriginal identity.  

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  10. 10. Antibalas- Antibalas

    Antibalas which is Spanish for 'bulletproof' is a Brooklyn-based afrobeat band that was inspired by Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra. Their music incorporates elements of jazz, funk, dub and improvised music and traditional drumming from Cuba and West Africa.  

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  11. 11. Mokoomba - Rising Tide

    Mokoomba brings audiences an electrifying blend of Afro-fusion and tantalizing traditional Tonga rhythms. Their name stems from the deep respect that the Tonga people have for the Zambezi River. 'Masangango' is a wonderfully thick bluesy number with a definite West African influence manifest. 

  12. 12. Alhousseini Anivolla - Anewal/ The Walking Man

    On Anewal/The Walking Man Tuareg guitarist and singer Alhousseini Anivolla evokes the great African blues masters and blazes a trail through his Saharan homeland.

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  13. 13. Amadou & Mariam - Folila

    Amadou and Mariam's latest album was recorded both in New York with guest performers, and reworked in Mali. Due to the contributions of their special guests such as Santogold and Nick Zinner (from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's) the interesting album bursts with different ideas and brings out different angles of afropop, of which Amadou's guitar and Mariam's voice always remain the central focus.

  14. 14. The Cambodian Space Project - Not Easy Rock N' Roll

    It's hard to encapsulate exactly what The Cambodian Space Project sound like - it's exciting, trippy, woozy, other-worldly! In fact the band describe it best themselves, as they explain the band is a 'cosmic cross-culture rendezvous featuring space trippers from various planets'! Their sizzling sound revives the 'golden age' of 1960s Cambodian pop, an influence which has inspired them to write their own Khmer psychedelic rock. Expect heavy guitar lines and thumping drums anchored underneath lead-singer Srey Trey's perfectly strident voice. 

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  15. 15. Rodrigo y Gabriela & Cuba - Area 52

    Area 52 is Rodrigo y Gabriela's first recorded collaboration with another group of musicians; a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra composed of some of Havana's young talent. Collectively they are known as C.U.B.A.  

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  16. 16. Raghu Dixit - Antarragni- The Fire Within

    The Raghu Dixit Project self titled debut album features eight songs that were put together over the past 12 years but are uniquely different. 

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  17. 17. Criolo - Nó Na Orelha

    Criolo's album mixed Brazilian hip-hop with funk, samba and roots reggae. His music sings the tales of street-life in his native country and is soaked in the kind of urban cool that Criolo does best. 

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  18. 18. Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis - Greekadelia

    Pioneers of reinvented folk, Kristi and Stathis remix traditional demotika songs to reflect their own experiences of urban life in Greece. A previous release by the acclaimed duo topped the World Music Chart for five months, and they are once again set to shake up the scene with Greekadelia: this is Greek folk as it has never been heard before.

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  19. 19. Zani Diabaté & Les Héritiers - Tientalaw

    Tientalaw is one of the last recordings of Malian legend Zani Diabate who was a West African guitarist. Zani had been schooled in not just the kora and balafon but also dance and percussion, and perhaps his distinctive guitar playing reflected this. Sadly whilst putting the finishing touches to Tientalaw, Zani entered the studio with his guitar strapped on but shortly suffered a stroke and died in 2011. 

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  20. 20. Karine Polwart - Traces

    Karine Polwart's music is sensitive folk that flows elegantly with each album. Traces is a crafted collective of story-teller songs. Listen out for interesting textures too from Indian harmonium, field recordings, and creative percussion. 

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