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CD Review
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All Music Guide, CD Review >>
It¹s hard not to approach an album like this with some trepidation.
Guitarist {$Justin Adams} works in tandem with Gambian griot {$Juldeh Camara} to create grooves that consciously blend the sounds of American rock and blues with those of West African traditional music; {$Camara} plays the riti (a one-stringed spike fiddle) and the bologo (a sort of two-stringed banjo), and sings, while {$Adams} accompanies on guitars and occasional percussion and keyboard. The duo are on the record as being enthusiastic about the fact that so much of their music is improvised in the moment in the studio; one or the other will play a riff, the other will pick up on it, and they move forward from there. Which is fine, if you like hearing one or maybe two chords repeated very long periods of time. Granted, pop song structure and tonal development don¹t always have to be the point and on their own musical terms, tracks like {&²Achu²} and the lovely, slide-guitar-based {&²Nangu Sobeh²} work very well. At its best, this is music that can induce a sort of trance without being boring or obnoxiously repetitive. But when it isn¹t at its best, it can be pretentious (notice the truly wanky guitar on {&²Sahara²}) or derivative (the {$Bo Diddley} lick on which {&²Kele Kele (No Passport No Visa)²} is based is entirely too literal). There are some great moments on this album, but too few of them to make it solidly recommendable to any but the most diehard desert blues fanatics. 07/10/09
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