Leo Rojas - Chaski

Ecuador is one of the three main Andean countries, and that means lots of traditional music. So what do you do to pump some new life into old traditions? Some groups mimic North American natives outright, with war bonnets on it, buckskin and all the rest. Others are more authentic, and try to mine their own traditions for new insight...

Big Foot Mama - Led s severa

Slovenia is best known for the wife of you-know-who, but there's more to it than that. Slavs may have been the last Europeans, but hardly the least, and Slovenes are one of the anomalies, northerners stuck in the south by virtue of shifty politics. They can rock, too...

Aventura - Su Veneno (Version Bachata)

The Dominican Republic is bachata country, but so much of it sounds so similar, that it gets stale. There's a lot of African blood in the DR--it shows. There are some nice beaches there, too; lots of nice things...

Sharzy-Wan

Not sure where the Solomon Islands are? Think Guadalcanal, and dozens of aircraft lying at the bottom of the ditch that lies beyond your idyllic beach setting--okay, so not THAT idyllic, but not bad. And it's interesting how the reggae buzz goes from island to island, around the world, and largely skipping everything in between, even when the islands are half a world away, maybe antipodes, will check, back later. 'Wan' is the number that comes B4 'Too', BTW, bilong Tok Pisin...

Jeff Joseph feat Grammacks - Medley cadence

Dominica is almost unique among Caribbean nations in having a sizeable population of native Caribs, in addition to a mixed French/English colonial heritage. That means zouk and reggae, perhaps best exemplified by one of the late masters, enjoy...

DHAANTO CUSUB DIRGAAX - JIGJIGA DHAANTO PARTY 2013

Somali is the other major culture in the Horn of Africa, besides Ethiopia, with an influence far beyond the borders unto the Somali Diaspora, now worldwide. But this is from a small town in Ethiopia, on the road to the Somaliland border and Hargeisa, from the Rimbaud country of Harar, Arabic-speaking region of the Ogaden desert, high and dry...

cumar macalin & cumar aadan - Suuban

Djibouti was not my favorite country to visit, BUT... I like this, even if they are from Somalia, or Somaliland. That's close enough. I may have to go back--in winter...

Zahara - Loliwe

South Africa can be a rough place, but it can also be richly rewarding. Enjoy.

I Got You On Tape - Waking Up The Brotherhood

Sweden and Iceland are all over the English-language music charts, whether you know it or not, but what about Denmark, arguably the center of Scandinavia? There's Agnes Obel, and... more. Interesting things are happening here musically, metal-tinged metaphysics in multi-color chiaroscuro, that you can dance to--sometimes...

Hey - Gravity (그라비티)

There's more to South Korea than K-pop. Check it out...

Barbora Poláková - Nafrněná

There's no better place to be than Europe these days--hint hint--and nothing better there than East Europe, of which Czech Republic shines as founding member and gateway from the West. There is plenty of entertainment, including indie music...and a sense of humor. Watch the video...

Nyankol Mathiang----Abyuok Reil Piou (Official Music Video)

South Sudan is nobody's lost cause. Once you get past the macho electronic-fuzz-vocal booty-twerking factory-generated crap from underemployed over-zealous production companies, there is some good music to be found, mostly by women. This is their mama and role model, R.I.P....

Χρήστος Δάντης - Maya Maya - Official Video Clip

Finding songs to like from Cyprus is not an easy task for me. For one thing, there's the island's split personality between Greek and Turk, so problematic right there in forging an identity separate from those mother countries. Greeks dominate on YouTube, but it's mostly Eurovision-style hunk and hot-bod models standing among smoke machines and wind machines singing in auto-tune to drum machines--great. Once in a while something interesting pops up...