AFRICA: 50 YEARS OF MUSIC VARIOUS ARTISTS (Discograph)

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In compiling 50 Years, Ibrahima Sylla—don of the venerable Syllart Records—was assisted by Pierre-Olivier Toublanc, Arnaud Bassery, and Pierre René-Worms. They’ve divided the box into six mini sets by region: east, west, north, central, south, and Lusophone. (The north African portion was handled by Bouziane Daoudi and Bruno Barré.) Each region gets three CDs to strut its stuff, and each trilogy is arranged chronologically to one degree or another. Thankfully Sylla and company haven’t filled every possible minute of every CD. One thing that makes the box more manageable than its heft suggests is that it’s only about 16 hours long, rather than the 23 or so it could’ve been. “Only”—hah!

In a way, 50 Years of Music seems less like a response to other African compilations—or even to series like the Rough Guide CDs—and more like a natural consequence of the giganticized music culture that MP3s have given us. It’s hard to imagine any label deciding to market a collection of 185 songs by 183 different artists without the example of the mega-playlists that Web denizens have been making and trading for years.

Ill-informed complaints like the shots at VW are exactly why 50 Years of Music is necessary—Westerners’ increased interest in African pop all but mandated the set’s existence. We’re long past the point where Paul Simon’s Graceland ought to be the go-to musical comparison for Vampire Weekend; the bubbling Congolese rumba that influenced the band’s first album sounds little like Graceland‘s bumpier South African mbaqanga grooves. I understand that a reflex is a reflex; my own are equally lazy. But this box demands everyone step up their game.