Customer Reviews

World 2004

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World 2002 and World 2003 are two of my most favorite CDs. Their songs are modern, lively, and really catchy. World 2004 seems like it's gone to "payola", a term that only folks over 50 may understand. What happened? I do see that a different CD label seems to have taken over the "World 200_" title, and this CD producer must have decided to get nothing but the cheapest and least-desirable of world music for this CD collection. Even the artists I know and like on this CD seem to have handed over their most forgettable songs. It's definitely not worth the 18 or 19 dollars.

Washington Post, 'World 2004': Really Going Places >>

No musical classification causes more trouble than "world music," a catchall that raises proverbial red flags when it's supposed to be waving real multinational ones. Purists hate the term for its flattening effect. The more diplomatically minded squirm at its hints of cultural imperialism, wondering what semiotic evil lurks beneath its ostensibly innocuous function. And people from, say, everywhere but America and England wonder what an Italian ballad singer might have in common with a big African dance band.

Whatever its implications, however, the notion of world music has helped open borders that are better off blurred. Even if much fusion has been washed out by generic global gloss, no worthwhile musical advance ever evolved through isolationism.

One way around the linguistic thicket is to let music set (and defy) its own agenda. That seems to have been the approach behind "World 2004," a new two-disc collection compiled by English radio DJ Charlie Gillett. Explaining his criteria in the liner notes, the host of BBC's "The Sound of the World" cites contemporary playlist material that simply spoke to "casual radio ramblers -- architects, van drivers and chair makers, breast-feeding mothers and home-working students." The resulting mix features 34 artists from 28 countries, each different but all engaged in a shared world project of getting lost in music.

Gillett takes care to whip up an appropriate mishmash, pairing organic folk music with weird hybrids. With Fat Marley's "Xin," the album starts out in a murky netherworld, where vocals by an Indian man and a Chinese woman float over a base of Brazilian reggae. The gauzy production sounds decidedly modern, but it diffuses into organic Argentine accordions and crisp Gypsy beats in the next few songs. Highlights abound from both sides of the traditional vs. cosmopolitan divide: the blind Portuguese vocalist Dona Rosa sounds timeless singing blues-bent folk over acoustic guitar, while English electronic act Sidestepper makes a mellow meld of time spent in Colombia, Cuba and Jamaica.

Gillett adopts a conciliatory tone in his liner notes, trying to lure listeners into what he calls the album's "collage of virtual unreality." But tracks such as Markscheider Kunst's "Kvasa Kvasa" make a convincing case on their own; leaning tropical rhythms against glancing African guitars, the song gives a danceable base to vocals that point to their homeland -- Russia.

The second disc features more of the same, which is to say bits of anything and everything. Gillett shows off his sly sequencing hand by following the Israeli folk song "Fellini in New York" with "Dentro al Cinema," an Italian jazz jaunt sung by Gianmaria Testa. The album's mostly non-English lyrics make connections less than literal, but shifts in tempo and mood tell stories of their own. After unassuming folk tunes by artists from Venezuela and Switzerland, the Israeli-Palestinian group Gilad Atzmon & the Orient House Ensemble wanders in with a glimmering song that rises, slowly and steadily, like the sun. It's a gesture of cultural unity performed in the name of music, but it's also the kind of knowing nod that "World 2004" treats as perfectly natural.

I did not buy this CD for a long time after looking at a couple of negative reviews on this site. I dont know why some of the reviewers did not like this. This CD is an amazing compilation, equivalent in quality to the World 2002 CD. Recall that Charlie Gillett excels in collecting sounds which are different and pleasing, not necessarily just the catchy sounds. If you keep an open mind and have a curiosity to listening to different sounds, you will love this CD. "Fat Marley" and "Terry Hall and Mushtaq" sound very different and unique. "Fellini in New York" is mellow and poignant sounding. Tinariwen is one of the songs I like best. And there's so many more... I would suggest that listeners read the booklet which comes along with the CD, and try and get a perspective of what each song is about, and who the artists are. You will tend to like it more, when you do that. Enjoy!

This is another top class compilation from the World 2000 Series. An excellent range of styles and choice cuts every one. There would be no better way to catch up on music from around the globe than this double CD.

I usually do not post feedback about music CDs I buy, unless they are really outstanding. This time, however, I will make an exception. The WORLD 2004 compilation is worst hodgepodge of boring, tasteless material I have heard in a very very long time. It is a total waste of money and time. I have no idea what criteria was used to judge and choose the contents of this CD; I suspect the rights to these songs were bought by the pound. It is shocking to see that the worst possible material from very well known artists was used here. The whole contents is nauseating. I now swear I will never ever buy another CD without giving it a spin first; too much rubbish out there.

Summary:

This is without a doubt (in my opinion) the worst compilation CD of the decade(s).

Sincerely

Pirooz Pakdel

gjinc@lycos.com

This is an essential collection of the most exciting new music to be found anywhere on Earth - something you should twig as soon as you realise that the 34 tracks have been selected by regular OMM contributor - and celebrated author and broadcaster - Charlie Gillett. Not merely selected, but also sequenced, so that the sexy menace of the Touareg group Tinariwen sets up the dramatic posturing of Pietra Montecorvino, and she in turn gives way to the whispering charms of Carla Bruni before the ecstatic Souad Massi takes over, and so on. It's a trip certain to lift your spirits and open your ears.