Website: World Circuit Records
Activity: Record Company
Address: www.worldcircuit.co.uk
Purpose: Promote World Music artists

World Circuit is a brilliant record label devoted to West African music and its relationship to Cuban, Brazilian and even American blues music. They just launched a redesign of their website and it's a great example of how a simple page layout and clear navigation can be adopted without compromising character.

They took several steps to improve the usability of the site starting with the implementation of navigational tabs. In my opinion, tabs are always a good idea when dealing with a large amount of content. They're intuitive and allow you to quickly scan what a site has to offer, much like a table of contents. Extraneous landing pages have been deleted, tightening the information hierarchy. It's much easier to explore their musicians, browse releases and read reviews. The best part is a dragable mini music player on album description pages that opens directly in the site and offers fast-loading sample clips.  

The strong graphic style of the website is conveyed through prominent photography and subtle details like textured paper and stencil-style typographic heads suggesting the multi-layered nature of the music. Page transitions are animated with a blurry-to-clear effect. It's an appropriate choice because much of the music is very rich: only after many listens does it begin to reveal its charms.

As you might have guessed, I'm a big fan. I've been listening to West African music for a few years and it's absolutely amazing. World Circuit's releases, in particular, are really well-produced. You just can't go wrong with any of them. If you're interested, try Ali Farka Touré's Malian blues, Cheikh Lô's Senegalese mbalax, Orchestra Baobab's Cuban-influenced jam sessions, or Oumou Sangare's stunningly beautiful Wassoulou ballads. Most albums are available on the iTunes Music Store, but consider buying the CDs for the great package design and liner notes that are definitely worth having.

I promise: once you start listening, you'll really get hooked.


A few links:

Rough Guides Music: I'd recommend starting with two Rough Guides compilations: "Senegal & Gambia" and "Mali & Guinea". They give a great overview of the diverse sounds coming out of the region by leading musicians.

Benn loxo du taccu: Matt Yanchyshyn's excellent African music blog.

Sterns Music: A UK-based World Music distributor with a massive catalog. They also post a monthly chart of best-selling albums.