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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: World Groove
• Label: Putumayo
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-08-16

I've fallen out of touch with my world music listening in the past year. This is mostly due to trying to stay on top of all the great indie rock releases that have been coming out, and the fact that it's very rare that world music labels feel the need to be reviewed on a site such as Music Emissions. One label that is still sending me material is Putumayo, one label that hasn't slowed down at all. You have seen their CDs in all sorts of gift shops and different venues. They pride themselves on making their music easy to find. Anyway, World Groove is one of their more recent offerings and what a diverse album it is. It provides us with the background for a global party presenting world dance music from literally all corners of the earth. Some of the more popular artists on World Groove are Issa Bagayogo (Six Degrees) with "Nogo", Zap Mama (Luaka Bop) with "Miss.Q.In", and Cheb Mami with K-Mel doing a remix of "Parisien Du Nord". One track that really stood out was the one from Ragheb Alama, "Saharony Ellil". Ragheb is from Lebanon and he mixes his native music with some slight Western influences. The album opener from Rouge Rouge, "Attention" is very catchy as well. All 10 tracks on World Groove are impressive, as usual with Putumayo compilations. It would be a great job sourcing out the music for these compilations as well as sequencing them into all of the various compilations.
I'm not sure if it is an ongoing deal but the copy that I received had a copy of Putumayo Groove Sampler with 11 extra tracks from all their Groove and Lounge series. It's a great added bonus bringing the "World" a few extra songs.
It should also be mentioned that, as is the case with most of Putumayo releases, a portion of the proceeds is donated to the Putumayo Cross-Cultural Initiative providing education and music resources to children worldwide. See their site for more information.

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