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(Beggars Banquet. 1999) Natacha Atlas. the enchanting belly dancer who led the UK-based Trans-Global Underground. offers a beguiling mix of North African and Arabian music set to the ambi- ent-dub sounds of London's dance clubs on her third solo release Gedida. A more instrumentally varied production than either of her first two CDs. 1995's Oiaspora and 1997's Halim. Gedida was recorded mostly in Egypt. with gyrat- ing percussion. strings. oud. bouzouki and dashes of OJ scratching. Thankfully. there are fewer electronic sounds and unrelenting techno beats than on her earlier work. Instead. Natacha opts for rich organic sounds-real drums. strings and wind instruments. While Atlas' voice echoes hauntingly throughout Gedida. it's clear she's no classicist. She doesn't have the vocal agility of. say. Um Kalthum. the late Egyptian singer whose voice was so pure and forceful it was said to be capable of shattering glass. But there's more to Atlas than her voice. Atlas' belly dancing is not some Orientalist marketing technique. Growing up in a Moroccan suburb of Brussels. she studied a traditional belly-dancing style known as raq shark;. Her music indeed embodies the spirit and rhythms of belly dancing. Kulanjan (Rykodisc, 1999) As a musicologist and performer grounded In traditional folk blues. Taj Mahal has played everything from conch shells and kaomba to duldmer and mandoon to evoke sounds from the Caribbean. the American South and other wellsprings of African- American musical heritage. One source he's particularly fond of is MaO. West Africa. With Toumani Diabate. one of MaU's foremost players of the kora. a harp- like instrument with 21 strings. Mahal recorded Kulanjan in Athens. Georgia. For the session. he gathered several notable Malian musidans who sing and play traditional instruments such as the ngoni. the bolon and the kamalengonl. On Kulanjan. Mahal plays chunky chords on steel guitar while Dlabate plucks delicate melodies on the kora. The two swap licks here and there. Mahal's bluesy guitar at times sounding awkward next to the soft. cascading tones of Diabate's kora. Many of the songs. like 'Tunkaranke: hinge on cheerful repetitive riffs. round-t when $1345 $1595 $1995 LA-Tahiti-Fij . . . .••••• (Land / Sydney-Singapore-Delhi-Istanbul-LA $1915 Mt. Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal, 28 days, land only Lowsgson farg - t:\l(e$ ofSM to $178 excluded. Customize your own fare at www.AirTreks.com or contact us for a free estimate on your dream trip I Why go .. .... .... ',. Free/ Go further . http://WWW.airtreks.com 1-888-258-5902 A Service of High Adventure Travel, Inc. Request our free brochurel Fax: 41 5-911-5606 Email: travel@AlrTreks.com