Pop With Cultural Sound From the World Around

Pop music used to be full of regional flavors: Remember the rollicking New Orleans beat of hits like Huey (Piano) Smith’s “Don’t You Just Know It” and the Dixie Cups’ “Iko Iko”? The psychedelic San Francisco sound of Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead? The smoldering Memphis soul of Otis Redding and, later, Al Green?

Things have changed. That kind of spicy cross-pollination has given way to bland music designed to fit homogenized radio formats.

At least that’s the story in the commercial mainstream today. But step into the world of independent and import labels and you can find international artists blending the distinctive stamps of their cultural traditions into the pop marketplace.

On the Off Beat is a periodic look at this other world of pop music, where a rock band of Australian aborigines can compare notes with an American cult favorite, or an Israeli pop singer from Yemen rubs shoulders with the latest Jamaican reggae star.

Sahelian With Sheen

SALIF KEITA. “Soro.” Mango. Keita is an albino and reportedly a direct descendant of the 13th-Century warrior king who founded Mali. But that pedigree isn’t the reason “Soro” has created a stir in African music circles. Keita has given a high-tech studio sheen to Sahelian music--a blanket term for the mixture of African and Islamic elements that developed along the southern edge of the Sahara.

The music on this auspicious American debut may spring from a venerable tradition, but it doesn’t sound like any African style pop fans here are acquainted with. Percussion is downplayed in favor of intricate, choppy arrangements dominated by lush keyboard orchestrations that create a gently lulling backdrop for Keita’s remarkable singing.

Swooping and wailing through the long melody lines, his light yet coarsely textured voice hurts, then hypnotizes and finally jolts when he delivers the opening lines to “Sina (Soumbouya).”

Keita sounds like the first African pop musician who has moved beyond playing catch-up with contemporary technology to arrive at a clear-cut vision for the future.

Vinyl Meltdown

KASSAV. “Kassav au Zenith.” (CD Records import). How popular was this 13-piece ensemble from Guadeloupe and Martinique with the Paris audience at the concerts recorded for this live double album? Just listen to how far (hint: not very) the band gets into “Rete” and “Move Jou” before the songs turn into huge, unprompted audience sing-alongs in Creole patois.

How hot was the playing by the premier exponents of the Caribbean style known as zouk ? Well, when guitarist/bandleader Jacob Desvarieux kicks into a pure rock solo over the surging rhythms halfway through “Tim Tim Bwa Sec,” Kassav approaches vinyl meltdown. “Au Zenith” may be the most exciting live introduction to a new style since the epochal “Bob Marley & the Wailers Live” threw reggae in the world’s face.

Soweto Spectrum

VARIOUS ARTISTS. “Thunder Before Dawn.” Earthworks/Virgin. MAHLATHINI. “The Lion of Soweto.” Earthworks/Virgin. Looking to delve deeper into the post-”Graceland” glut of South African pop releases? “Thunder Before Dawn” is a sequel to the critically acclaimed “Indestructible Beat of Soweto” sampler, and spans the South African music spectrum from accordion jive and a bright sax instrumental (“Vula Bops”) to assorted mbqanga vocal styles.

“The Lion of Soweto” counters with the most distinctive singer in South African music. American ears might identify his guttural edge as Howlin’ Wolf crossed with a bullfrog on a nocturnal prowl around Captain Beefheart’s neighborhood.

There is a sameness to the sound, but that makes maneuvers like the sudden drop into stop-time phrases on “Kumnyama Endlini” doubly riveting. And when Mahlathini and company hit the afterburners on up-tempo romps like “Bhula Mngoma” and “Bayasimenmeza,” it’s about as irresistible as this exuberant music gets.