Wo’ Pop

Problem: In your world travels, you'd like to hear some good local music, but when you finally manage to find a hidden backroom where they're not playing American pop, it's time to head back stateside.

Mazzone takes his listeners around the world in 3 hours.

Solution: a little gadget you might've heard of...

The radio.

According to Seattle disc jockey Darek Mazzone, you don't have to board an airplane to be well versed in flamenco-inspired electronica, Ukrainian-gypsy punk, Punjabi hip-hop, or Cuban rap. Nor must you brave the daunting World Music section of your local record store. You just need a finger that's nimble enough to tune a dial (or download an MP3).

On "Wo' Pop," the show he transmits from Seattle's legendary KEXP every Tuesday night, Mazzone takes his listeners around the world during 3 hours of what he calls "Modern Global" music. (You can also hear the show online.) Whether he's pumping the flamenco of the Catalan Ojos de Brujo or the maniacal beats of New York City's gypsy punk Gogol Bordello, you'll start dancing around your living room or thumping your steering wheel, wondering why you've never heard this music before.

Mazzone's ability to pare down a world of music into a few golden hours every week is applauded by thousands of music lovers hungry for more than the Top 40 lists have to offer.

"The foundations are cracking like crazy," says Mazzone, who grew up listening to a lot of folk music as a child in a Communist-run, pop-culture-wary Poland. "It's a DJ culture now, and with today's technology, musicians are able to sample music from all over the world."

What locales will you visit when listening to "Wo' Pop"? Maybe Cuba with the jazz-infused rappers Orishas, Sarajevo and Bulgaria with exhilarating Balkan punk Kultur Shock, or the streets of Paris with rapper MC Solaar.

Of course, with all these foreign songs, you might not understand any of the lyrics. . . . But then again, do you really understand all the lyrics, even when they're in English? Probably not.

Posted on April 10, 2006