Good music? Russia delivers... (Markscheider Kunst, Skal'pel)

First band to be presented is: Markscheider Kunst from Saint Petersburg in Russia. Yes, I don't like Myspace either, but check theirs. Do it for the music, you can download some songs there, and they're really great, I don't just say it. They play some sort of funky Russian ska :)
You should also pay their official website a visit; would get you to watch some splendid videos in the media section.

Second band is Skalpel; not hard to figure out they also play some sort of ska. So if that's a style you like, no way you wouldn't want to check them out.
(if you are doing web-research on them beware of name similarities with some Polish jazz band)

The Skalpel . Prazdnik
myspace site

Kurdish music..

Rewsani - zewiyen edabe
You can just browse through catalogues like this(kr/tr/de) to find some good artists and try them out. I quite like this song above. Another one I like is the song Dar Hejiroke (Fig Tree) by Aynur (taken from her album: Kece Kurdan (Kurdish Girl))

mp3s here (psst ;) )

Tuvan throat singing punk rock :)

Yat-Kha (yenisei punk)
Tuvan throat singing merged with slow, folk/blues arrangements, and a dark tinge of difficult-listening art-rock.

below a video of a live performance in Berlin


winner of bbc award for world music in the category pacific/asia

Great collection of Ethiopian artists..

Abraham G/medhin

It's just awesome I won't bore you with stupid text, just follow the links on this page and enjoy :)
Amharic is just beautiful

The Idan Raichel Project - A Singer with Two Countries

On the two albums the songs are mainly in Hebrew, some in Aramaic but also feature parts of other languages like the one above features Hindi for example.
They are definitely worth to be tried out.
http://www.idanraichelproject.com/en/

India: Yesudas

Yesudas is a great Indian musician/vocalist who has made songs in several Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu..). He is also greatly participating in the Bollywood film scene producing background music, etc.
Hindi songs
Tamil songs
Malayalam songs
Kannada songs
Telugu songs
Enjoy :)

Esma Redzepova

Esma Redzepova is a Macedonian-born vocalist, songwriter, and humanitarian. She shares Muslim, Jewish, and Roma roots. During her life she has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Mangava tut"
www.esma.com.mk

Mali: Toumani Diabaté

Toumani Diabaté (born August 10, 1965) is a Malian kora player who has gained international acclaim for his music. He is considered by many to be the world's finest kora player. He is a versatile performer, being equally at home with the traditional music of Mali as well as with cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles. He comes from a long family tradition of kora players including his father, Sidiki Diabaté, who recorded the first ever kora album in 1970.

Diabaté live at Sziget Festival (Hungary)
More music here, fly feature.

Nitin Sawhney - Mutlicultural Music from England

Nitin Sawhney (born in England) is an English musician of Indian descent. His critically-acclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often presents themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality. The video below in in Hindi, although Sawhney sings in many languages.


Koyal


Related artists:
Trilok Gurtu
Nusrat Fatih Ali Khan
Talvin Singh

Swiss Hip-Hop/Rock: SAD und Züri West

I think it's got quite a distinct sound from German standard, that's also one of the reasons why I'm posting this. Züri West and SAD - Senseremix:

Punjabi dance; popular music, bhangra

Bhangra (Punjabi: ਭੰਗੜਾ, بھنگڑا, bhaṅgṛā) is both a lively dance which is from the region of Punjab, now divided between North India and Pakistan, and the musical accompaniment to the dance. A variety of popular music, also called bhangra, has developed from these traditions and has a keen youth following around the world.

Bhangra is a fusion of music, singing and the beat of the dhol drum, a single stringed instrument called the iktar (ektara), the tumbi and an instrument reminiscent of an enlarged pair of tongs called chimta. The accompanying songs are small couplets written in the Punjabi language called bolis. They relate to harvest celebration, love, patriotism or current social issues.

Today the word bhangra is more associated with the style of dance pop music derived from the above mentioned musical accompaniment. The dhol's smaller cousin, the dholaki, is sometimes used instead of or in addition to the dhol. Additional percussion, including tabla, is frequently used in bhangra.

Below now is just a typical example of how this looks in modern pop culture.
Song by Sabar Koti.

Wir sind Helden - German Pop

I've posted only little about Germany so far, cause being from Germany myself my main interest lies in different foreign music, but this band had to be mentioned at one point or another. I think it's the best pop music in German we have right now: Wir sind Helden.
You can find quite a lot of their video clips online on youtube as usual, but you might also want to check out their website (DE/FR/EN).


"Von hier an blind"

Μιχάλης Εμιρλής - Greek rock/pop

Mixalis Emirlis - H pipa tis eirinis

I really had to add this clip :)

Finnish Rock music Apulanta

Apulanta - Viivakoodit

You should really give them a try.

Finnish Hip Hop

One of the more famous Finnish hip hop artists is Elastinen (Kimmo Ilpo Juhani Laiho. Together with Iso H he forms Fintelligens. He released also an album on his own. Here's one song by him: Syljen.