Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Desert Blues (Rough Guide/Southbound)

 |   |  <1 min read

Malouma: Yarab
Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Desert Blues (Rough Guide/Southbound)

Elsewhere has long advanced the case for the thrilling music which comes out of the sub-Sahara and is driven by barbed-wire guitars and passionate vocals.

This collection pulls together all the big names so merely listing them with the internal link to their albums at Elsewhere (which have sample tracks) should do the business.

Here is your journey into a music which will just drag you in: new kids on the block Tamikrest; Terakaft founded by two former members of the exceptional Tinariwen (who are also here); old hands Etran Finatawa and the late Ali Farka Toure; the great Malouma; Mariem Hassan; Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba; Amadou and Miriam; Samba Toure . . .

This single disc (13 artists) also comes with a bonus disc of Introducing Etran Finatawa from '06 which makes an excellent primer, excellent value . . . and offers valuable music.

For more collections along these lines at Elsewhere -- with sample tracks --  see also The Rough Guide to African Blues, Musiques Metisses and the Marabi Africa compilations. 

Share It

Your Comments

Gavin Hancock - Dec 8, 2011

I subscribed to Rough Guide CDs for a year and of the 24 I received this is one of the best. It's easy to be cynical about desert musicians playing Western instruments but from the get-go any misconceptions are quickly forgotten.

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

Sarathy Korwar: Day to Day (Ninja Tune/Border)

Sarathy Korwar: Day to Day (Ninja Tune/Border)

This intricate weave of styles stitched together by jazz, samples and percussion can sometimes come off as oddly stateless and shapeless, but over the full distance offers multiculti... > Read more

Various Artists: Saoco! (Vampi Soul/Southbound)

Various Artists: Saoco! (Vampi Soul/Southbound)

Subtitled “The bomba and plena explosion in Puerto Rico 1954-66”, this double disc ensures your library of bomba and plena just got a shelf-filler. For most of us, myself included,... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

HENRY ROLLINS INTERVIEWED (1990): Volume and vehemence

HENRY ROLLINS INTERVIEWED (1990): Volume and vehemence

It’s the handshake which takes you aback first – a real knuckle-crushing pressure grip which Henry Rollins delivers impressively as his eyebrows level and his gaze hardens. On a first... > Read more

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Mark Lockett

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Mark Lockett

Although drummer/composer Mark Lockett has lived in Melbourne for the past decade, he still feels the draw of his homeland and – with the release of his debut album Sneaking Out After... > Read more