Originally Posted by storymilo ^From what I know Lebanon has a lot of techno. Is this true?

Originally Posted by NumberNineDream Great idea indeed. No one can truly delve into music while sticking to the anglophone countries. Sometimes other countries' folk, can be considered as progressive or even experimental and avant-garde if compared to the music we usually listen to. If you need some albums from the central Mediterranean part of the world, just give us a shout =P.

Originally Posted by Burning Down You shouldn't have trouble finding anything from Canada. I could give you a hand though

Originally Posted by Bulldog I'll let you know if I run into any problems/lack of options with Canada. Probably won't get round to them for a while though - gonna take care of the stuff from the farther corners of the world first.

Mexico

Caifanes - El Silencio (1992)

Moving over to Latin America now, the Mexican outfit Caifanes were at the forefront of the Spanish rock scene in the late 80s and, more importantly, delivered one of the movement's finest albums in their later years. In the sense that the approach to work and output that Caifanes and many of the other bands from the same movement adopted clashed with the happy, chirpy pop music on the Mexican airwaves at the time, I suppose it wouldn't jumping to gun too much to say that this movement was something akin to a Latin American version of the punk rock scene. Not that they spent their time ripping off the British and North American movements of course (if anything there's a lot more of the Cure to their sound than that), but it's a neat, pretentious little analogy to draw.

Although there are a few punkier moments to be found, such as on the album's opener, all that stuff takes a warm place on the back burner as intricate musicianship, subtle melodies and lead singer Saul Hernandez's vocal performances makes up for the sharpest edge that this album has. As an album, El Silencio clearly takes a few cues from the more gothic side of British post-punk, although this is more than just another good post-punk album from an unconventional part of the world.

To put it simply, a lot of you have seen From Dusk 'til Dawn haven't you? You remember that band that's playing in that sleazy, soon-to-turn-nasty nightclub? Imagine them with a female lead singer and having spent a lot of their teenage years listening to PIL, the Cure and early Dead Can Dance, giving those sounds their own twist with a dash of bouncy, Latin American vibes here and there along with their own ideas about melodic structure, and that's basically what you're looking at with this album. In other words, very very good stuff.
The best bits: Nubes, Piedra, Debajo De Tu Piel



Kenya

Matata - Feelin' Funky (1974)

Moving on, as anyone who's ever gone on a little musical trek of their own through Africa before will know, Afro-funk is one of the first big genres you'll come across. There've been many truly great peddlers of Afro-funk down the years, Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango among the best and most influential of them.

You won't find many more instantly accessible than Kenya's Matata though, even more so because of the fact that they moved to London in the earlier 70s and made a name for themselves there. Another reason would of course be that they have a very similar sound to North American funk groups like Funkadelic and the Ohio Players. So, in that sense, they're hardly the most original-sounding band you'll ever come across, and they're a lot more about funky riffs and saxophone interludes rather than the epic psychedelic passages Funkadelic and Parliament would often take themselves through, or the soul ballads of the Ohio Players. If you just want a really fun, convincing and thoroughly energetic, funky little album, get hold of this when you can.
The best bits: I Wanna Do My Thing, Gettin' Together, Good Samaritan