Various Artists - The Rough Guide To West Africa (1995) (World Music Network)

World Music Network is a UK based record label specializing in world music. It was set up in 1994 by husband and wife team Phil Stanton and Colombian-born Sandra Alayón-Stanton. World Music Network consists of four record labels – Music Rough Guides, Riverboat Records, Introducing and Think Global. Music Rough Guides releases the Rough Guides CD compilations.

The Rough Guide series is produced in association with Rough Guide books and delivers the best possible starting point for exploring different music from all over the world.

‘The Rough Guides’ net is cast historically as well as stylistically… the liner notes are meticulously researched and written.’ ------- Wall Street Journal (USA).

I have a fairly extensive collection of these and while some are better than others they are a great starting point for anyone curious about the music of a particular area, I personally think some of the later compilations aren't great but I suppose it's all music and deserves to be listened to so as people can make their own evaluations. I'm going to start posting them all up over the next while.

If anyone checks out the world music network website and is looking for a specific compilation comment down below and I'll see what I can do.

The Rough Guide to West African Music, originally released in 1995 was the second release of the series; it largely focuses on Malian music, with six of the twelve tracks coming from that country. This is followed by Senegal (two tracks), and Guinea, Niger, Ghana, & Mauritania (one track each). Phil Stanton acted as producer on the compilation.

Chris Nickson of AllMusic gave the album four stars, but lamented the broadness of the topic, stating "the real problem with this album isn't the music, which is glorious throughout, but the fact that it suffers from the size of its ambition and the inability to fully realize it."

Michaelangelo Matos, writing for the Chicago Reader, praised the record's focus on slow to midtempo music, stating it "succeeds in sustaining a meditative, inner-gazing mood."

Tracklist:

1. "Foliba" - Super Rail Band (7:51)
2. "Djelika" - Toumani Diabaté (7:14)
3. "Roucky" - Ali Farka Touré (8:18)
4. "Toro" - Moussa Poussy (4:44)
5. "M'Bore" - Sona Diabate (6:09)
6. "Djama Kaissoumou" - Oumou Sangare (6:46)
7. "I Ka Di Nye" - Bajourou (5:19)
8. "205" - E.T. Mensah (3:05)
9. "Utru Horas" - Orchestra Baobab (8:41)
10. "Almamy Bocoum" - Mansour Seck (4:57)
11. "Mauritania My Beloved Country" - Dimi Mint Abba & Khalifa Ould Eide (3:32)
12. "Agne Anko" - Kante Manfila (4:37)

Download Link - Mediafire

Various Artists - Seven 7 Inches From Ghana (Global Groovers)

This is a compilation of highlife music from Ghana taken from the Global Groovers blog. I cannot reccomend this blog highly enough, it's a fantastic resource for anyone with an interest in world music, and the webmaster has taken the time to reupload a vast amount of his extensive collection despite the problems with file hosting services a couple of years ago.

There have been a number of compilations done on this website, including the Global Sampler volumes; however this is from the "Seven 7 Inches" series - there are a number of different ones from a variety of African nations. The Ghanaian highlife music seems to stand out a bit more compared to other kinds of highlife, however in my opinion the majority of music that falls into the afrobeats genre is worth investigating. :)

From the Global Groovers website:

"We had some from Kenya and from Colombia and Congo, today it is Ghana's turn to get a 'Seven 7" singles' compilation. I recently found some so here they are. ET Mensah's tracks are a bit noisy but the rest sounds fairly okay. Hope you like them, enjoy listening..."

Tracklist:

01.   Ramblers Dance Band - Oburoni woewu
02.   Ramblers Dance Band - Antie christie
03.   Dr. K. Gyasi's Noble Kings - Sama awo deme
04.   Dr. K. Gyasi's Noble Kings - Sei na'zo
05.   Ashanti Brothers - Me yonko awisia
06.   Ashanti Brothers - Kae owuo
07.   E.T. Mensah & his Tempos Band - Odo anigyina
08.   E.T. Mensah & his Tempos Band - Abele
09.   Yamoah's Band - Atemmuda
10.  Yamoah's Band - Oyefo
11.  Abongo Boys led by Sammy Kwampoh - Anka meye bi
12.  Abongo Boys led by Sammy Kwampoh - Menko ofie ho
13.  EK's no.1 Band - Efa woho ben ?
14.  EK's no.1 Band - Ma agyanka nesu nye wosu

Download Link - Mediafire