The Year’s Six Best Global Pop Albums

Lists: Ben Keene wants a new category added at the Grammys: Global Pop for the Traveling Mind. Herewith, his nominees.

02.06.09 | 10:49 AM ET

Seun Kuti in Oslo. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins.

The 2009 Grammy Awards are just days away, and I confess to feeling a certain lack of excitement. It isn’t that I didn’t find anything to like among the nominees. What’s missing for me is a sense of adventure. Music crosses languages and cultures and can inspire curiosity and spark the imagination. And while new age, polka and the always-confusing world music categories help, no Grammy award exists for music that deliberately disregards borders—political or otherwise. It’s time to acknowledge outstanding artists who blend styles and traditions. A growing number of imaginative composers and performers not only ignores boundaries but revels in musical hybridity. So here are my nominees for a category I call Global Pop for the Traveling Mind.

Forro in the Dark

This group’s 2008 release was the five-song “Dia de Roda” EP rather than a full-length album, but all of the ingredients of their musical feijoada are present: triangle, flute, zabumba, saxophone and electric guitar. The band seasons a traditional Brazilian style with rock and reggae. It’s a combination best appreciated live. This track features David Byrne.

Dub Colossus

At times trippy, dancy and jazzy, “A Town Called Addis” mixes dub reggae and house music with traditional Ethiopian instrumentation as well as Afropop elements. The fiddle and wailing vocals that weave around the groovy bass line and lazy downbeat in a track like “Sima Edy” are inspired.

El Guincho

DJs are the new rock stars and El Guincho—a one-man carnival from the Canary Islands—easily qualifies. He stormed the scene with an infectious hodgepodge of sounds that adds up to a loopy, hyper-rhythmic, 40 minutes of fun. Follow “Alegranza!” to Africa, the Caribbean, Polynesia and back again.

Seun Kuti

Being the son of a Nigerian music legend sets the bar high for an inspiring young performer, but Seun doesn’t disappoint with “Many Things.” Leading Egypt 80, his father’s large backing band, Seun delivers soul, funk and politics in Yoruba and English.

Monareta

On “Picotero,” hip-hop, electronica and funk collide with cumbia, calypso and champeta (an Afro-Colombian genre native to South America’s Caribbean coast), resulting in a fusion of beats, blips and spacey effects equally well-suited for listening enjoyment in a Bogotá lounge, a Brooklyn basement or a beach in Kingston.

DeVotchKa

Hailing from Denver, Colorado, DeVotchKa liberally spikes its version of indie rock with violin and tuba, sousaphone and accordion, polka tempos and gypsy melodies. This band defies categorization. Their record, “A Mad and Faithful Telling,” is just that: a bizarre musical travelogue, honestly told. 


Ben Keene has appeared on National Public Radio, Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio as well as other nationally syndicated programs to discuss geographic literacy and his work updating a bestselling world atlas. Formerly a touring musician, he has written for Transitions Abroad and inTravel.


5 Comments for The Year’s Six Best Global Pop Albums

Kathryn 02.07.09 | 1:24 AM ET

I enjoyed reading this and look forward to checking out some of these bands. I hope someone listens…it would be a great Grammy category.  (I love the phrase “musical feijoada”! Did you coin it?)

Ben 02.07.09 | 12:13 PM ET

I don’t know if anyone’s used that phrase before but I think it’s an apt description of Forro in the Dark. Also, if you like what you hear, that band, along with El Guincho, Seun Kuti, and Devotchka are touring different parts of the world in February and March.

pelu awofeso 02.09.09 | 3:43 AM ET

I am excited to see Seun Kuti on your list. I’ve listened to ‘many things’ just once (on local radio) and I was blown away by the ingenuity as well as the heart-wrenching message of the song. I trust Nigerians are expecting the Fela incarnate (he has the most striking resemblance to his late dad) will step up his game in the domestic scene, which is now awash with highly talented and succeding hip-hop and rap artistes.

GayleTravis-Keene 02.10.09 | 9:17 PM ET

I loved the reviews and the cultural sampling.  As our world gets smaller, it is wonderful to hear from other parts of the planet!!!!!  Music is the universal language!!!!!!!

Gayle Travis-Keene

Matt Stabile 02.11.09 | 10:01 PM ET

Great picks, I especially liked Forro in the Dark featuring David Byrne, Hard to go wrong when you’ve got him on your side.

Matt

http://www.TheExpeditioner.com (Online Travel Magazine)

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