Latest CD releases reviewed

Waridi - Scents of Zanzibar Jahazi/Virgin

This album is aptly named: the nine tracks ooze exotic. This cocktail of rippling rhythms, sweeping violins and captivating melodies is called Taarab, popularly known (in Zanzibar, that is!) as Swahili wedding music. The Culture Musical Club is this East African island's leading players of the style which combines a dizzying collection of influences, probably relfecting the range of peoples who have passed through this island. The music is both instrumental and song-based. Taarab draws its influences from the Arab world, India, Indonesia and the West, and blends these with local rhythms and melody. The club is one of many which meets after work to socialise and learn and play music, while the music itself has a kind of gentle mesmeric quality, exotic if a little repetitive, and yet oddly familiar. www.zanzibar.net Joe Breen