VA - World 2003 - Music Without Frontiers [Compiled by Charlie Gillett] (2003)

It's always fascinating to read someone else's hit list and then compare it with your own. But when the compiler is British BBC radio presenter Charlie Gillett, there is not only the lure of an expert opinion, but curiosity about acts that have not yet found adherents across the pond. Basing his selections primarily on listener reaction, Gillett has created a reasonably objective time capsule of his year. Some of the bands, such as Senegal's Orchestre Baobab, Portuguese neo-fadista Mariza, and Kasse Mady from Mali, have made their mark in America. But others, such as Weird MC (UK/Nigeria,) Markschneider Kunst (Russia), and Eugenio Bennato (Italy), are less familiar. One reasonably consistent difference between the United Kingdom and the United States seems to be that American world music fanciers have a lower tolerance for pop fusion--after all, the Lambada was a joke in Peoria while it was still going big guns in Europe. --Christina Roden