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CD Review
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Dr Rhythm, CD Review >>
René Goiffon of Harmonia Mundi asked me last year if I wanted to go to the festival in the desert, a celebration of Tuareg music which takes place in an oasis north of Timbuktu, Mali. I idly thought about it, as I surely would love to go to Mali, but I can't afford to cancel my classes and hop on a plane, despite the lure of the festival. Now, of course, I'm wishing I'd gone because the CD is great and in fact there's a danger that next year, or certainly the year after, it will be a scene like Burning Man where self-respecting music nuts will be too embarrassed to say they went. Stalwarts of Malian music like Oumou Sangaré, Lobi Traoré (not on the CD though the reputed show stopper) and Ali Farka Touré were headliners, but acts from all over West Africa and Europe also played in the two day shindig, which had swordplay, a crafts fair and the obligatory camel races to complement the music and dancing. Robert Plant is conspicuous. He turns in a moody ad-libbed blues potpourri with pretty poor guitar work that must mean he's not talking to Jimmy Page. Plant says the festival is one of the few honest thing he's ever been involved in, which tells you where he's been at. And I guess he brought the ice so they had to let him play. The first three tracks, by Afel Bocoum, Takamba Super Onze and Tartit flow together and create a wonderful trancelike mood that is broken by Plant, though some may be ready for a break after three intensely repetitious tracks of rhythmic cycles. The drone quality of Malian music is one of its appeals, though from time to time it sounds like a washing machine thudding away. Things perk up with Oumou Sangaré and then a track from Ali Farka which fades up in the middle of a jam. This is followed by another of the high spots: Tinariwen's haunting insistent "Aldachan Manin." It's so immediate that you truly feel as though you are there. Electricity meets the n'goni on Adama Yalomba's track which is also urgent and compelling. I am not a purist, I dig Issa Bagayogo's fusion stuff, but the jam between Ludovico Einaudi on piano and kora player Ballake Sissoko did nothing for me: those Keith Jarrett chord patterns are tired. But then we are back in the Sahel with Kel Tin Lokiene (more droning washing-machine music made with voice, drums and handclaps). You have to act fast and skip the next track or be subjected to French rapping. Shudder! Tindé from Tessalit in Northeastern Mali, near Algeria, are another acapella group with a rhythmic pulse, and they brought to mind a night in the desert in Sudan. I was unable to sleep (the moon was full) and heard a noise like people chanting that seemed to be coming from across the river. I tried to get closer but couldn't locate the source of the music. Also I didn't want to waken any sleeping crocodiles, however I was entranced. After about half an hour wandering about with my tape recorder running it finally dawned on me that it was in fact frogs and insects making this celestial sound. Baba Salah of Oumou Sangaré's band turns out some hard blues riffs fronting his own combo and seems headed to a solo career, which may doom him to obscurity as his backup was rather ragged. Blackfire, a Navajo rock band from Arizona, seem like a novelty. Other than the yodelling back-up singer it sounded like Journey or one of those dire musical dinosaurs. The album ends with a Malian singer/songwriter known as Django in a contemplative mood. Many gems on here you won't find anywhere else. And book your ticket now before the World Beat Weenies ruin it! 10/01/03
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