Reviews

'La Si Dah' is already the third album Texas based Cas Haley released on Easy Star Records, but that still doesn't make him a "household name" in Europe.

Jah Defender, born Ricardo Mills and in the beginning of his carrier shortly known as Jah Fyah, is a young talent from Trinidad.

Despite the fact Kingstonian Colah Colah (born Stephan Bygrave) already released three albums, the young singjay remains relatively unknown in Europe.

VP Records promotes 'The Messiah' as Miguel Collins' (aka Sizzla) seventieth long player.

Yours truly mostly knows the Maldives as a tropical holiday paradise and because of the islands' connection with the almost mythical Coco de Mer from the Seychelles (although the double coconut only grows in the Seychelles, the nuts often end up in the ocean, making them wash up in the Maldives, where they were used as a medium of exchange), but musically the islands were unknown territory.

The royal family of reggae is back! Ok, Morgan Heritage has again been sharing a stage for almost a year now, but the wait for a new album continued.

With old-school deejay Trinity's 'Eye To Eye', the French Irie Ites Records label creates fireworks.

With Maguaré we finally have our very own Belgian cumbia band.

Reggae fanatics will undoubtedly know André Sampaio as a guitarist and songwriter for Ponte De Equilibrio, Brazil's most famous reggae group.

With artists like Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, U2 and Sting, 'Get Up! Stand Up! Highlights From The Human Rights Concerts 1986 - 1998', a retrospective double album on the Amnesty International benefit concerts, isn't really about world music (though you will find a few nice tracks by Third World, Ruben Blades and Youssou N'Dour in the track list), but looking at the inspiration for the music on these two discs, shouldn't "music for a better world" equal world music? For the thirtysomethings among you this compilation offers a nostalgic look back at the music scene of the nineteen eighties (and to a lesser extent that of the nineteen nineties).