Customer Reviews
All hail Ethiopiques! Hot and spicy. - By: C. Whitworth, 26 Sep 2008 
Hey pop pickers! Do you despair at the state of British indie music? Need that itch seriously scratching? Man,this is one wild & groovy ride. Weird & wonderful & very much deserving the attention of any curious & open minded music fan.I ain't no world music fan ,but the currently very stale indie scene forces one to search further afield to satisfy ones needs. If you like this, watch the film: Broken flowers (Bill Murray). Alot of this music soundtracks that film brilliantly. Also try Tinariwen (for seriously cool desert blues)or Kasai allstars.
We have people like Damon Albarn to thank for drawing our attention to such brilliant music. Nice one.Fair play to bands like Vampire weekend & The Good,the bad & the queen for mixing it up with sound results (no pun intended).
Patchy offering - By: R. Lawson, 31 Aug 2008 
This seems a pretty random collection of tracks. There are a few things that grab my attention, but to be honest they arein the minority. I've read reviews comparing them for impact with the Buena Vista Social club. Maybe this showcases Ethipian musicin it's best light & is comparable with the Buena Vista's showcasing of a portion of Cuba's musical heritage to maximum effect; but if that's true then it just emphaises how much more Cuba has to offer, & how much more acceptable & familiar the traditional sounds of Cuban music are to the general listener's (including general world music listener's) ear. To me it's one for the collector to represent Ethiopia perhaps, but I'll only really go back to a few selected tracks.
Haunting and uplifting music that deserves a wide audience. - By: Jazzrook, 04 Jul 2008 
The 28 tracks on this wonderful double CD are drawn from a series of 23 Ethiopiques albums put together by the inspirational French promoter & champion of Ethiopian music Francis Falceto. This haunting, uplifting music which is an intriguing mixture of jazz, soul, funk & folk was created & recordedin Addis Ababa during the final years of Emperor Haile Selassie's reign(1930-74).
'The Very Best of Ethiopiques' has been described as "doing for Ethiopia what the Buena Vista Social Club did for Cuba" & this marvellous music certainly deserves to reach the widest possible audience.
music you can eat - By: T. Preston, 30 Apr 2008 I felt I had to review this release if only to address the balance of a spectacularly ignorant reviewer who gave it one star.
What (s)he fails to grasp is that the influence of funk & jazz etc on these tracks is not a sign of Africans trying to copy American styles from yesteryear, but that popular musics around the world influence each other (see Vampire Weekend for a modern example), & compilations like this serve to bring music to a wider audience that would otherwise be ignored. And about time too!
The influence of jazz & funk on popular music can be seen all over Africa. This is hardly surprising when you think that the original influences for these genres can be traced back to 'traditional' African music. But the point is, everywhere does it differently, & the blend of musical influences heard on these cds are truly mesmerising, including modal scales & liturgical music from the Orthadox Ethiopian church.
What surprised me, though, is the wide apeal of the cds. My flatmates got used to me putting on random cds but when I played this, they all loved it - comments from 'ideal at a dinner party' to 'great to make love to'. So there you have it - something for everyone!
Allin all, a great advert for Ethiopian music & a great compilation of tracks that show just how rich this music was, & still is.
Fantastic gateway into Ethiopian music - By: David Johnson, 14 Apr 2008 Any best of from the titanic Ethiopiques series was going to make for interesting listening.
This double CD package really comes up trumps, giving you a fine sample of the artists featured throughout.
Disc One is Jazzierin it's feel. We have the slow meandering Heywete before we dive into the painfully cool Yerkermo Sew. It is Mulatu Astatque's music that has brought Ethiopian music to a wider audience. Hardly surprising. Taken from his experiences of livingin America, the grooves of his tracks are funky, infectious. Yekatit is probably my favourite one from him - rolling beat, the coolest slice of funk.
Getatchew Mekurya's music is far last westernized, more organic - the saxophones lead to towards Egypt. I love Shellela on the second disc.
The other artist whose music deserves a definite mention is soul singer Mahmoud Ahmed, several fine tracks on here including the beautifully languid Fetsum Denq Ledj Nesh.
I would say that this best of CD is ideal for those just dipping into the music. An excellent gateway into the rest of the series.
