Bateria Lucha is a Bay Area percussion ensemble, an activist group and a Drupal website.  All three things which rank high on my recommendation list, and while I've known of them for several years, I only finally attended some of their classes recently.

I recently indulged in a musical flashback - the English Beat's first album. It's only now, listening to it in retrospect, that I appreciate what it taught me about rhythm. A tight tick-track drum sound permeates the entire album, and it's really the accents that create the effect - and pleasure of listening.

I don't know about you, but when people mention Western European folk music, I am unfortunately quick to judge and assume it's not going to be of my liking.  But then I'd never heard Lo Còr de la Plana (links to MySpace....), a group of guys out of Marseilles who sing in the traditional southern French language of "Oc" (from whence "Occitane").

This is more of a paying of respect than a recommendation - although, if you ever find yourself in Honolulu with nothing to do, definitely look up Sango Muyiwa.  He was my first percussion teacher, and leader of the Liberation Ensemble, a conga performance group that I drummed with for several years while I was in college in Hawai'i.