(Because Music)
Five years ago, when I visited Amadou and Mariam at their home in Bamako, I was approached by their son Sam, who asked me onto the roof to listen to some songs he had been working on with his friends. Now they have recorded them, and SMOD (which stands for Sam and his friends Mouzy, Ousco and Dronsky, but is now a trio following Mouzy's departure) have their first international release. It's an intriguing, varied and highly original fusion set, matching Sam's confident acoustic guitar work against slinky harmony vocals and bursts of rap. The insistent rhythms may be typical of Manu Chao, who produced the album, but there is impressive variety here, from the gently driving Les Dirigeants Africains through to the funky Ambola and the gently melodic Simbala, which sounds like a Malian folk tune. There are the inevitable echoes of Amadou and Mariam, but Sam and his friends are no mere copyists. A band this good deserves a better name.
Dania Ramirez Lucy Liu LeAnn Rimes Adrianne Curry Jennifer Gimenez
No comments:
Post a Comment