Various Artists: Rough Guide to the Music of Malaysia (Rough Guide/Elite)

It would take someone more expert than me to tell you whether this is a fair or failed overview of Malay pop and roots music. All I know is that it's pretty cool. There is big band Bollywood stuff, beautifully exotic ballads, some Indopop and Arabic pop-rock, beguilingly romantic instrumentals -- and a 70s band called Fredo and the Flybaits who mixed Malay music with Beatles pop on cheap instruments. It comes with excellent and intelligent liner notes, and if you shove it in your PC or Mac you get an interview with the compiler, plus travel information from the relevant Rough Guide. Now that's the way to present music from elsewhere. Real summery stuff. Go on, you know you'll love it.