Israeli trance/rock duo Infected Mushroom has not only built up a sizable live following (even serving as one of the headliners for the recent Electric Daisy Carnival in L.A. that drew 135,000 fans over two days), they have also apparently established a solid reputation among fellow musicians.

The group's new album, 'Legend of the Black Shawarma,' was executive produced by superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold, and features Korn's Jonathan Davis, Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum and Perry Farrell on the track 'Killing Time.' But Infected Mushroom's Amir Duvdevani tells Spinner 'Killing Time' was originally supposed to feature another guest vocalist. "I had Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode [to] sing that song but he canceled when the Depeche Mode tour started," Duvdevani says.

With the Beijing Olympics imminent, a chat with Sa Dingding -- a rising Chinese star on the global-music stage -- seemed a perfect opportunity to gain some insight into the vast and daunting world of her country's sounds. After all, her international debut album, 'Alive,' presents an artist with one foot in the music of her childhood on the Inner Mongolian grasslands and her other in a pan-Chinese approach embracing everything from Tibetan traditions to the most modern hi-tech rhythms and textures of Beijing and beyond.

So who does she want to single out as a current influence?

"Jay-Z -- I like him very much," she says. "Jay-Z has a very good sense of rhythm."

Any Chinese artists?

"Dou Wei," she says, noting a prominent Beijing pop and rock artist of recent years, whose Web site calls him "moody and creative," lists his roles in various Chinese groups of recent years and makes references to such Western acts as the Cure, Bauhaus and dark-toned English "post-rock" act Bark Psychosis. "He mixes his music -- some rap, a little electronic and plays the flute."

It was an odd scene one recent evening. The Brazilian Minister of Culture -- a graying but robust man in his 60s -- danced frenetically, goofily with a 20-something longhaired, bearded American hippie. Both flailed their legs and arms, both flashed huge grins and sparkly eyes, exuding pure joy, and then walked away, arms around each other into the night.

Unusual? Maybe. But not entirely, given the setting: On stage at the Hollywood Bowl in front of a delighted crowd of more than 12,000 people, most of them dancing along. This sort of tableau is exactly the kind of thing the people at the Bowl have tried to make routine for a decade now since founding the World Festival, an annual series put on in association with noted non-commercial radio station KCRW-FM in Santa Monica. The dancing fools this night were the evening's headliners: Brazilian great Gilberto Gil -- co-founder with Caetano Veloso and others of the '60s tropicalista movement, jailed and exiled as a dissident and now for the last five years his government's culture czar -- and Devendra Banhart -- the young prince of what has been described variously as Freak Folk and New Weird (or Wyrd) America, though truth be told he reaches well beyond those labels.

In addition to being one of the world's most popular DJs, Paul Oakenfold has been an increased presence in Hollywood recently, creating the score for 'Swordfish' as well as contributing cues to films such as 'Collateral' and the popular 'Shrek' series. "I've been doing more and more film and enjoying it, really," he tells Spinner. Oakenfold is on tap for three scores in the upcoming year, including the Danny DeVito/Eliza Dushku vehicle 'Nobel Son.' So as an active member of the film-scoring community, who better than Oakey to reflect on some of his favorite combinations of music and movies? And he even threw in a sixth as a bonus.

1. '3:10 to Yuma' (2007 version): It took a classic cowboy film and turned it around in terms of music and added a lot of new sounds. I was really impressed with that score.

2. ' Elizabeth: The Golden Age': It's a good score because they've married two composers, one from Bollywood and one from the West, and it works really well. That's visually a good one to see.