albums of the year 2006 by richard haslop
1. Ali Farka Touré – Savane (World Circuit)
- the last album recorded by the great Malian before his death may also be, without any exaggeration on account of sentimentality, his best …Touré himself thought so, and with Touré you knew there was no hype involved – though there might not have been hellhounds on the trail of this King of the Desert Blues Singers, a mood of otherworldliness, with several songs influenced by African spiritual beliefs, is enhanced by a production that ranges from stark and even desolate to a driving, droning African Wall of Sound whose blues seems closer to Chicago than the Clarksdale crossroads - but essentially “Savane” is the sound of Touré’s heartland, marginally modernised, maybe, but ultimately totally timeless
Leave a Reply