World Invasion!

A bold prediction for the new year. As the US begins to reevaluate its role in the global community in the upcoming year, foreign music will be welcomed into the US with open arms. The blogosphere and hipsters in general will be overcome by a wave of Eastern or World Music obsession. Traditional instruments and rhythms will be in, as will vocalists. This upcoming obsession will be legitimate though. World music, particularly from Africa and Asia has been criminally under-appreciated and I'm glad to see that artists these days are learning from more diverse musical traditions and new foreign musicians are gaining prominence on the fickle internets. Not only is more world music becoming vogue in samples or beats, but many artists like El Guincho (tropical jams from Spain) and Esau Mwamwaya with The Very Best are finding their way deservedly so onto hipster's ubiquitous year end lists.

A couple of years ago while taking a class on post colonial African history at school, I stumbled upon the great blog Awesome Tapes From Africa, that relayed old tapes from African artists to the those here in the US. Whether it is ancient folk music, or 80s rap and "Voodoo Funk," Awesome Tapes is a unique opportunity to hear raw, original African music. I found one particular artist from West Africa, Ata Kak, whose blend of tinny hip hop beats and equally mousey rapping is just entrancing. While it all sounds similarly unapprochable at first, it is new and interesting to hear something so remote, but also enjoyable and somehow familiar at the same time. This is similar to what goes on with the Very Best Mixtape (which I talked about a few months ago) where famliar songs are reworked by Esau and Radioclit to take advantage of Esau's vocals and transform them into the vanguard of a new wave of foreign influenced hipster music. When I hear Esau exuberantly exclaim "And Take Your Money!" in his take on Paper Planes, everything hits home. Music is a global community where everybody is entitled to be heard. Not only does The Very Best Mixtape reinterpret contemporary hip hop jams, but also includes collaborations with M.I.A., Santogold and Vampire Weekend, all of whom are very hot right now and have utilized foreign musical arrangements on their own as well.

M.I.A. certainly began this trend by making Sri Lankan inspired dance music popular for hipsters and the general music community, while also utilizing a diverse cast of musicians from all over the world as a reflection of the growing reach of popular music. M.I.A's songs are so sick that they cannot help but be noticed and this has rubbed off on the soundtrack to perhaps my favorite movie of the year Slumdog Millionaire. As the Judge already discussed, this soundtrack is awesome. It has a new track featuring M.I.A., an incredibly catchy (and superior) DFA remix to Paper Planes and a lot of contemporary Bollywood hip hop by A.R. Rahman "the Timbaland of Bollywood." Burkra Som Sistema, a combination of Portuguese and Angolan hip hop with big beats, has also utilized the vocal talents of M.I.A. on one their the better tracks to great success (and Pitchfork's recognition). The next wave is coming.

Even hipster geeks are getting in on the world music action. Vampire Weekend uses afro sensibilities in their acclaimed record (in my year - end top 11), while a compilation of 1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground music was given a stellar 7.5 by Pitchfork a couple of days ago. I had purchased a compilation called African Scream Contest, a compilation of psychedelic afro sounds from Benin and Togo from the 70's earlier this year and you can certainly see reciprocal influences between contemporaneous "western" music of the period, just as it is occurring more obviously now. While still being traditional and not conforming to western expectations, these African artists are familiar and approachable by US listeners. Give it a try, read up on some history and you might learn a thing or two (woah right?).

As with Bollywood and Slumdog Millionaire, other Middle Eastern and Asian traditional artists are coming to light in the United States. American producers are remixing foreign artists from Africa and no longer are mainstream foreign artists merely mimicking western trends, but they are traditional artists utilizing elements of pop to create something entirely new. Madlib has used Bollywood samples extensively in his Beat Kunducta series so far. Tuvan throat singers were included on the top albums of 2008 list compiled by E-music and toured in the United States this past year (performed at Dartmouth), while Tinariwen have produced some fantastic naturally atmospheric tracks that have floated around the blogosphere earlier this year. Like Rainbow Arabia, who you should definitely keep an eye on, Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer, hip indie bands are going to find greater success combining traditional world music ideas with western pop sensibilities for tremendous results. I can't wait to see it, nor should you.

Tinariwen - Matadjem Yinmixan (YSI) (filesavr)
Gabo & Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo - It's a Vanity (YSI) (filesavr)
Ata Kak - Yemmpa Aba (YSI) (filesavr)
Buraka Som Sistema - Sound of Kuduro (YSI) (filesavr)
Yeasayer - Wait for the Summer (YSI) (filesavr)