World Vollage

Vieux Farka Toure played on the last album made by his father Alo before his death last year, and Alo Farka Toure returned the compliment on this, his son's assured debut. The material mixes praise songs with anthems of social uplift. There are dubby basslines on "Ana", and "Courage" features a predatory guitar riff among the scratchy fiddle, but generally the instrumentation sticks fairly close to the Niafunke blues that run in the family. Toumani Diabate turns up at the end to plat epic kora; just as he moved out of his own father's shadow, so may Vieux.

David Honigmann