Performing at WOMAD 2010

The British branch of the global World of Music Arts and Dance festival has dispensed charm, diversity and sonic inspiration from current home, Charlton Park, since 2007 and this year's gathering is a real corker. Even though the usual hierarchy separating headliner and undercard gets blurred at WOMAD (every act on this playlist is outstanding), the eye-catchers for 2010 include smartly allusive French collective Nouvelle Vague, who specialize in recasting punk/new wave classics like "I Melt With You" in a softer light; rap pioneer and astute social commentator Gil-Scott Heron ("The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"); and the delightfully unclassifiable Imogen Heap ("Hide and Seek"). One of the world's greatest drummers gets busy with his sticks, in Next Steps.

As always, WOMAD allows us to bestride the planet in huge effortless bounds, as we get to sample sounds from all corners and all-comers — Nigerian percussionist and Afrobeat architect, Tony Allen, described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived", has been heard recently as a cornerstone member of the Good, the Bad and the Queen, but also keeps busy with solo work: check out the funky title track from 2009's Secret Agent. Los Angeles-based Ozomatli kicks off a world-wide bloc party with "Saturday Night", Cheikh Lo takes us to the spiritual heart of Senegal with "Guiss Guiss" and Jamaica's Horace Andy offers the refined reggae of "Money Money". World-class turntablism meets modern day zydeco, in Deep Cuts.

The aural wonders never cease in our WOMAD 2010 Deep Cuts, where you can sample the fleet-fingered expertise of DJ Kentaro ("One Hand Blizzard"), who won the World DJ Final age 20 and whose mastery over beats and breaks is quite simply astonishing; Texan-born young gun on the Cajun zydeco scene Cedric Watson ("Bijou Créole"), who wields the fiddle and the accordion with equal aplomb, and currently bases himself in Lafayette, Louisiana; and Bogota's La-33 (named after Calle 33 in their home city) who have found a way to merge the contemporary Colombian urban experience with salsa tradition — check out "La Pantera Mambo".

Without doubt the best thing to come out of Wiltshire since Stonehenge, the current incarnation of WOMAD, held since '07 at Charlton Park, Malmesbury, is one of the planet's greatest and most enjoyable affirmations that humanity is connected by the shared thread of music. The event's Peter Gabriel-tended roots stretch back over several venues to Shepton Mallet in 1982, and for 2010 the roster is looking as bright and eclectic as ever — if only we could mix our drinks the way the Afro Celt Sound System stirs up its styles ("Anatomic"; "When You're Falling"); if only we could all conduct a singalong like Rolf Harris ("The Court of King Caractacus"); if only all curators had the wit to put Little Axe, Calypso Rose and Phantom Limb on the same bill . . . if only it was WOMAD every day.