MALI MUSIC
Mali Music (Astralwerks)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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When I first popped this CD into the player I thought I was listening to someone's electronica release with African influences giving them the right to name the disc Mali Music. Not that it was bad. On the contrary, it was interesting and fresh, but I had expected authentic Mali music by authentic Mali musicians, which, much to my delight, is what I was actually getting and continued to get, often in much more traditional forms, for the rest of the disc. Electronica is just one of the colors of the pallet. There are chants, acoustic drum-dominated tracks, appealing and interesting rhythms, and even a bit of tripout that I guess you have to call MaliDub. The artist is definitely the producer, it seems to be a pre-existing track, there are certainly drop-ins and outs, and bits of digital ornamentation, all laid across a stream of rhythm that is clearly African. Having listened to quite a bit of music from Mali lately, I can at least tell you these are authentic sounds and styles, and as a lover of great rhythms, I can also tell you it's a fantastic disc for me, and others like me, in that regard. (Sometimes I think about making a "Killer Rhythms" section in the CD shelves, but it could get out of hand real quick, y'know? I mean, where do you draw the line?) Afel Bocoum, Damon Albarn, Toumani Diabate, Lobi Traore, Yoro Cisse, Simon Burwell and many others had a hand in making this CD, with Bocoum, Albardn and Diabate being the core, A portion of the sales go to an organization called OXFAM, which attempts to ease poverty and suffering in both urban and rural areas of Mali. You can check into that at www.oxfam.org.uk.

© 2003 - DJ Johnson