Capturing the imagination of Asian Britain, bhangra has rapidly grown in popularity in recent years. Firmly rooted in Pujabi folk, bhangra adds western influences such as electric guitars, synthesisers and drums to create a unique sound.

As the Indian film phenomenon sweeps mainstream Britain the Rough Guide To Bollywood is the essential introduction to the colourful, vibrant and dramatic soundtracks of the multi-million dollar industry that is bigger and more productive than Hollywood. Compiled by DJ Ritu, broadcaster and club DJ for London club nights Kuch Kuch and Club Kali and assisted by BBC Asian Network's Bhagwant Sagoo - this is a collection of the biggest and best Bollywood has to offer. Includes tracks from such Bollywood legends as Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and Udit Narayan.

Forged by the work of Django Reinhardt – arguably the finest jazz guitarist of all time – Manouche or Gypsy swing is a fascinating blend of Gypsy virtuosity and American jazz. In 1930s France, this new ‘swing’ music had a profound impact on the local musical scene and although the music’s creator died in 1953, his music remains highly influential to this day. Django Reinhardt created a tradition, which has been perpetuated and developed by many exceptional contemporary musicians. The Rough Guide To Gypsy Swing celebrates this style from the original Gypsy musicians of the time to those French and German musicians, mainly of Manouche origin, who have built on Django’s legacy and continue down the road of innovation.

Highlife music conjures up images of African nightclubs, shiny dancefloors, champagne, fine clothes and the spirit of hope and expectation that marked the end of the colonial era. The heyday of highlife was in the 1960s and 1970s, and the name describes and defines the popular guitar-led dance music of West Africa, primarily from Ghana and Nigeria. The Rough Guide To Highlife surveys this vibrant scene, featuring classic tracks of the era and the biggest artists within the genre.

Fasten your seatbelts for a whirlwind trip across the African continent. Exploring the hypnotic sounds of the Algerian desert and infectious dance rhythms from around the continent, taking in Mali's most brilliant kora virtuoso and the urban sounds of South Africa, this Rough Guide focuses on some of the stars and styles of what is arguably the richest musical landscape in the world.

A celebration of song and dance from one of Europe's strongest living folk traditions, featuring poignant Gaelic laments, the beauty of the Scottish harp, jigs and reels from the finest contemporary folk bands, and a rousing finale from the 'King of Highland Pipers'.

Musical styles and genres have always been blended together, as cultures intersect, to form new sounds and push the boundaries of experimentation. This has been felt in the UK where one of the most exciting forms of music to emerge in the last decade, Asian Underground, is a world of tabla-driven beats, Indian classical samples and frenetic drum’n’bass, trip-hop and techno. Including artists that have achieved phenomenal success around the globe, The Rough Guide To The Asian Underground showcases this British-Asian hybrid with a collection of solid scene classics and fresh, unreleased material.

A musical revelation awaits listeners as they delve into The Rough Guide To African Rap, displaying the kind of grooves that are rocking twenty-first century urban Africa and the Diaspora. In Africa, wordplay has always been a great source of entertainment and social commentary, and rappers have responded to social and political issues by addressing such subjects as poverty, AIDS, famine, corruption and globalization at a time when the changing economic, political and media climate across Africa has resulted in less censorship and more freedom to be critical of people in power. Not all these tracks are strictly hip-hop but the rap element is ever-present. Some of the tracks are by world-renowned stars, while others have never been heard in the West. Rappers move easily across cultural divides; their community is a more global one and all these artists can hold their own whether outside Africa or within.

While all sorts of music are accessible to lovers of diverse sounds, Ethiopia is often regarded as the forgotten musical continent, the missing link within the pan-African harmony. Brassy, electric, urban pop has exploded in popularity after the fall of the dictatorship, providing a swinging and hypnotic, poignant yet funky sound to the streets of Addis Ababa. From the golden age of Ethiopian music (the ‘Swinging Sixties’) to the new generation of producers, The Rough Guide To The Music Of Ethiopia has been carefully compiled by Francis Falceto to provide an overview of the wealth of sounds of this musically rich country.

High-energy benga music, with its pulsating beat and funky interlocking guitar riffs, has been at the forefront of Kenyan pop since the late 1960s. More recently, contemporary artists, such as Gidi Gidi Maji Maji and Nyota Ndogo, have been exploring the possibilities of merging traditional melodies, instruments and rhythms with new sounds from R&B and other international genres. In addition, taarab music – a mixture of Indian Ocean and coastal traditions – and rumba-based Swahili and Lingala music are phenomenally popular. The Rough Guide To The Music Of Kenya spans these styles from classic benga gems, to sparkling new taarab compositions, with a sampling of the most innovative sounds of Kenya’s hip hop generation.

This Rough Guide explores the jazz scene of one of the world's greatest musical powerhouses. From the progressive 1960s, when many of South Africa's finest musicians were forced into exile by the constraints of apartheid, to the modern era and the sound of the new 'rainbow nation', it also takes in the great jazz era of the 1950s.

World Music Network's second album made in association with the major international charity Oxfam delves into the enduring and diverse musical landscape of Africa with contemporary and classic tracks from across the continent. For each CD sold, World Music Network will contribute 28p to Oxfam. In addition this CD has an enhanced data track, which contains a visual presentation of Oxfam's work in Africa and is full of inspiring features, food for thought and links to related web sites.

This entirely new Rough Guide collection explores Scotland’s vibrant music scene. With a wonderfully rich and diverse heritage, Scottish music is constantly evolving while remaining deeply rooted in the past. Traditional instruments, such as the clàrsach and fiddle, are being embraced by a new generation eager to build on the skills of their forebears. Focussing on what is clearly a living tradition, The Rough Guide To Scottish Music rounds up some of the key artists and talent in Scotland today.

South Asia’s film industry is renowned for the volume of its outpourings. Bollywood, the Bombay-based centre of the Hindi-language film industry, long ago overtook Hollywood in terms of output and, many suspect, also in terms of influence and worldwide market penetration. Very likely, as the lights dim and colour shatters the darkness, one voice will cut through the silence, and this will be Lata Mangeshkar’s. Whether singing a bhajan (a Hindu devotional hymn), a liltingly romantic song about rebirth or a raga-based film hit, she is one of India’s greatest vocalists and one of the pre-eminent and most popular singers of our age. In the entire history of Indian film song, the greatest playback artist of either sex, the one that has reigned the longest, the one that everyone looks up to, is Lata Mangeshkar.

Pandit Ravi Shankar, a Bengali cultural catalyst if ever there was one, is the most famous Indian alive. When people say that India colonised the Western mind, much of it was of his doing, and when it came to getting people to pay heed to the wonders of Hindustani music, nobody ever surpassed Ravi Shankar – India’s best-known sitar player opened the breach through which many others poured. Through his influence, this missionary, pioneer and experimenter changed the face of contemporary Western music. Blessed with a highly cosmopolitan background and a flair for adaptability, he was the right man in the right places at a rightly receptive time. Of worldwide influence, Ravi Shankar has managed to enter the non-Indian consciousness and vocabulary in a way that only a select pantheon have.

Over the years, Bollywood’s dream-weavers have adopted many faces and many voices. Since the late 1940s, people have known, or suspected, that the face in close-up on the screen is probably lip-synching to a ‘playback singer’, and in the annals of Bollywood, Mohd. Rafi’s star shines bright. Decades after his death in July 1980 (at the age of 56), he remains one of the four most influential playback singers ever, alongside Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. His voice brought fantasy to life, and he continues to inspire succeeding generations. This album pays tribute to his overwhelming influence in the subcontinent and beyond.

The mystical power of Sufi music is explored in this entrancing album. Although the religiously orthodox tried to keep Islam free of music, the Sufis (Islamic mystics) instead sought to harness its power for the service of God. This collection discovers the diversity of Sufism from across the Islamic world.

The Rough Guide To The Music Of China offers a snapshot of a myriad of Chinese music, each track displaying the emotions and attitudes of its own place in time and circumstance, from Cantonese opera to Beijing punk, from ancient traditions to revolutionary rock, from 1930s pop-swing to 1990s pop-folk. Featuring China’s only all-girl punk band, one of the world’s leading pipa soloists and, of course, the most revered of all Chinese instruments, the qin, this album presents the evolution and revolution in Chinese music until now.

The first ever release to showcase the huge variety of Japanese traditional and roots music, this Rough Guide reflects the many contradictions of modern life in Japan today. In the hi-tech urban jungle, the blazing neon of the advertising hordes sends a shimmering light over the tranquillity of the nearby temple. So it is with this compact disc; the past and present sit side by side to provide an experience that is somehow uniquely Japanese.

Riverboat Records and World Music Network are proud to present Sabou by the legendary West African singer and kora player Mory Kanté. Sabou is an all-acoustic release by the first African artist to sell a million singles with 'Yéké Yéké', which topped the European charts in 1988. An exceptionally talented griot from Guinea in West Africa and a contemporary with Salif Keita in the Rail Band back in the 1970s, Mory Kanté has produced a stunning new album of depth and poise that is firmly grounded in his traditional griot roots.