VA Rough Guide To

Disco, Bollywood-style, is typically high-voltage: metallic flares, dazzling over-sized mirror-balls, smoke machines galore and Technicolor flashing dance floors. Let loose those dancing shoes and boogie down to Bollywood's glittering disco heyday with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and more.

An acoustic celebration of some of the world's great musical styles, from infectious African and Latin rhythms to far flung gems from Chinese and Indian cultures, this is an album guaranteed to broaden your musical horizons.'The Rough Guide to World Music Unplugged' helps to promote a deeper understanding of musical traditions and global cultures and includes unique recordings by masters of endangered instruments and traditions. A seamless collection underlining the Rough Guide's status as the number one compilation label.

From rip roaring folk renditions by Eugenia Georgieva and Çigdem Aslan to atmospheric and heartfelt gems from African divas Sally Nyolo and Lala Njava, this handpicked selection of tracks takes you on a journey from Calcutta to Cameroon and beyond. A celebration of some of the world's great female musicians on one album, this seamless collection underlines the Rough Guide's status as the number one compilation label for world music. 'The Rough Guide to Woman of the World' presents everything from the earthy desert blues chanting of Tartit, to the golden voice of India's Anandi Bhattacharya. This is a cutting-edge collection of incredible women whose songs deliver deep and meaningful messages.

From the avant-garde folk/jazz of Poland's Chlopcy Kontra Basia to Serbia's 'King of Apocalyptical Cabaret' Boris Kovac; the music of Eastern Europe is as diverse as the geography it represents. This Rough Guide showcases today's artists who preserve valuable traditions whilst enabling the music to evolve in new and unexpected ways.

From the guitar artistry of jazz-fusion legend John McLaughlin to Skandi jazz innovators the Karl Stromme Quintet, this Rough Guide showcases some of today’s pioneering artists who share the same goal of pushing the boundaries of jazz with truly remarkable results. Highlighting how jazz continues to evolve and be reinvented in the hands of musical innovators far and wide, the album includes a track by the legendary guitarists John McLaughlin and Debashish Bhattacharya. These are artists who share the same musical vision of journeying between cultures, it’s the perfect way to explore some of the best jazz you’ve never heard.

Jazz improvisation, syncopated beats and counter-culture attitudes have been swinging in the Arab world since the early twentieth century. This Rough Guide explores today's thriving scene, revealing how blending jazz and Arabic music has created the most beautiful of musical concoctions.

In line with the label ethos, this album promotes deeper understanding of musical traditions and global cultures, perfectly demonstrated by the meditative album opener ‘Sunno’ by Rafiki Jazz, a band with members who span four different continents. Their music includes some of the world’s most distinctive folk instruments including the West African kora, Caribbean steelpan, Indian tabla, Brazilian berimbau and Arabic ney. Likewise, the truly international ensemble Alba Griot’s sound combines Celtic (Scottish) and Mandique (Malian) traditions with blues, jazz and close harmony vocals.

From its underground roots in the nightclubs of 1970s New York, disco music had strong connections to the city’s Latino community. They provided many musicians, producers and labels making the music, as well as a large section of the audience dancing to it. Latin percussion instruments were at the heart of the disco sound and the strong influence of salsa can be heard in many tracks. One Latin music record company, Salsoul Records, would go on to be described as the greatest disco label of all time and, as disco conquered the world, Latino musicians in the Caribbean, South and Central America were swept along by it and began producing their own variations on the Latin disco theme.

The original jug bands had their origins in the 1890s amongst African-Americans, and were then known as ‘spasm bands’. This ‘do it yourself’ approach to their instrument-making gained immense popularity in America during the 1920s and early 1930s, and became closely linked to the development of the blues. The jug could be earthenware or glass and was played by buzzing one’s lips into its mouth from about an inch away, thus creating a sound somewhere between that of a tuba or trombone.

This Rough Guide illuminates the fullest-fattest cream of West African music that has passed through the doors of Riverboat Records HQ over the last twenty-five years. Stretching some eighteen countries from Mauritania in the North to Congo in the South, West Africa is a place of many music’s. This selection focuses on the powerhouses of Senegal and Mali in the main. Enjoy our handpicked cuts and get ready to get knee-deep in the archive.