cease to have any meaning when one applies it as broadly as this? I'm sincerely not having a pop; it's a term I've used myself, but I've come to recognise it's a wholly unsatisfactory expression, not least because you and I could both love world music and yet be listening to entirely different things. In fact, we could despise each other's taste while still both loving world music.

I once convinced someone that Chas and Dave are considered authentic world music everywhere but here, and appear on non-UK WOMAD bills.

Anyway, to try and be at least a little helpful, have you tried Shooglenifty or Peatbog Faeries for a bit of contemporary Celtic-influenced fusion music?

Real World do a compilation of female singers which might be a fine jumping off point for you. Here's a link to the Real World page about it with clips.

It's available from other retailers too but I generally prefer to buy as direct as possible these days.

The Mande Variations, a Malian kora player who is just incredible

http://www.last.fm/music/Toumani+Diabat%C3%A9/The+Mand%C3%A9+Variations

I have less of an issue with the term than I have with the term "african music" for example, as it falsely connotes an homogeneity that the term world music does not.

for a discussion on the origins of the term

http://www.frootsmag.com/content/features/world_music_history/minutes/

many of which are compilations.

The Very Best of Éthiopiques

African Scream Contest

Sahara: Blues of the Desert

Ghana Soundz

Nigeria Special

Cesaria Evora - Cabo Verde

Amália Rodrigues - The Essential Collection

Lhasa - The Living Road

Fela Kuti - Music is the Weapon

Bembeya Jazz National - The Syliphone Years

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares

Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou - The Vodoun Effect

Sir Victor Uwaifo - Guitar Boy Superstar 1970-76

'coffee table' fixture, but...

Buena Vista Social Club, both the movie and the album are outstanding. From there I investigated stuff by Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez and Omara Portunondo. I saw them at the NEC a few years back before many of the originals joined the choir invisible... One of the best gigs of my life.

Preferably eclectic, stuff from all over the World. The music that appeals to you will make itself known and you can explore further from there.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (the master of Sufi devotional music) is well worth getting into, but there are hundred's of albums out there, and some of them might be a bit pants (I think he got ripped off by a lot of people, a lot of dross got released)

I think 'Devotional Songs' and 'Love Songs' on Real World are very good for starters (in a traditional style), and the albums he made with Michael Brook ('Musst Musst' and'Night Songs' are both excellent - i prefer the second myself) are very good collision of east/west. but i am a michael brook fan so maybe biased.

and its Algerian/French Crossovers, you could do worse than to listen to Khaled (Previously Cheb Khaled - literally 'Young Khaled'), Rachid Taha or Faudel.

Or even all 3 together!

One other Mailan great was the late Ali Farka Toure - Niafunke is a great introduction.

Not maybe strictly World, but if you like fusion, anything by Nitin Sawhney is worth a listen. Anglo-Indian music with elements of jazz, flamenco, Kwaali, rap and Portuguese music - with political overtones - quite a mix!

Try to have a listen to Radio Tarifa; their 'Rumba Argelina' is as good a starting point as any. It's Spanish, but it has one foot in the dust of the Sahara.

If you can find a copy at a sensible price, also check out 'Blues De La Frontera' by Pata Negra.

There are those on this blog who know modern Spanish music much better than I do, but these are two favourites that have stood the passage of time and still get a regular airing.

Did anyone mention Tinariwen yet? They're pretty darn good. Don't know which to suggest, although am listening to the new one at this moment and liking it lots (it's in shuffle with Hope Sandoval, Divine Comedy, The Zombies, Robin Guthrie, Outhouse and Maximo park, leading to some unusual combinations)

may be the way forward initially - particularly with music of Indian and South Eastern origin

At the risk of raising the ire of the "vat's not bleedin orfen'ick nor nuffink" crew - all the Buddha Bar type compilations are pretty decent.

A particularly excellent one is this - Cafe Paradiso presents Asian Chill

http://open.spotify.com/album/1WLoPiYWsS4dn1f8jHCDop

For single artists in this area Talvin Singh, Transglobal Underground, Thievery Corporation, Nitin Sawnhey amongst others have all produced fine work and are well represented on Spotify.

Some really good recommendations here.

One I play all the time is "Call Of The Valley" by Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Brijbushan Kabra. This album was released in the late 1960s and is music from Kashmir. It features the wonderful sounding Kashmiri Santoor (a hammered dulcimer), flute, guitar and tabla. It's available on CD on the Hemisphere label.

..play with the dial, and stop when you find something you like. Alternately, get this man to do it for you:

http://www.myke.me/

Mike Dodge Weiskopf, a composer based in California, spent four years curating a fascinating blog called shortwavemusic on which he published found excerpts of Asian, African, Arabic, Islamic, Balkan and Mediterranean music. Myke's radio - and, consequently, his blog - was forced out of commission some time ago by the noise and smog of Los Angeles, but Myke has resumed activity again at the above site.

It provides an invaluable archive of world musics which are still motivated as much by devotion, ideology and utility as by commerce. More than that, however, the crackles, disruptions and particularly the overlaying of stations (or "duels" as Weiskopf refers to them) can occasionally create an unsettling alchemy at those elusive moments when your ear "forgets" the sources of these discrete sounds and just hears them as one.

He has previously combined the best of these recordings into a free zip collection called "The Shortwave 100", which may still be available.

this is a great magazine. With brilliant front cover CD's.