Globestyle
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For its first 10 years GlobeStyle was a leader in World Music, always getting to out of the way places before anyone else and rooting out the arcane and wonderful. We put out a Zouk compilation, back when it was called Cadence music, were heavy on the Soukous before those mi-solo guitars became quite so ubiquitous, opened the flood gates on Malagasy music and were first with a really major World Music album, Ofra Haza's 'Yemenite Songs'. Come to think of it, there were not that many records from Sudan available when the mighty Abdel Aziz El Mubarak LP came out, nor were others even considering Serbian brass bands back in 1989. Read more
We were lucky with the Mubarak album, in that it came to us, but we would often venture out armed with 2 microphones and a digital tape recorder to record 'in the field'. In the case of the Taarab Orchestras of Zanzibar, this was the only way to do it as the cost of shipping even one of these huge groups to the UK was prohibitive. In 1989 Mozambique was still lethally war torn, rendering it impossible to even drive around the country. We flew from town to town and digitised some remarkable music. Bollywood? we were doing it in 4 volumes in 1990. The best recording of Fuji music is still Chief Dr Sikuru Ayinde Barrister's magnificent 'New Fuji Garbage' And the next time you bump into Robert Plant ask him about Najat Aatabou's 'Voice of The Atlas'. Then there were the beloved 3 Mustaphas 3, a whole World of music wrapped in those enigmatic persona, and topped off with some of the finest head gear this side of the Balkans. As they said themselves "doing a hard thing the hard way" and as others heard - with such ease. One day they may appear again at a crossroads near you. GlobeStyle has taken it easy in its 2nd decade, but don't be surprised if it still has some surprises. |
