AFRICAN BLUES - MALI GROOVE - INDIE ROCK
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba - ‘Miri’
New album out 25 January 2019 on Outhere Records
CD (OH032 CD) / Vinyl (OH032 LP) / Download/ Streaming
Distributed by Proper
'Miri’ is the fifth album by Malian ngoni maestro Bassekou Kouyate and
the follow- up to the acclaimed ‘Ba Power’ (2015) which saw a more electric approach,
complete with distortion and wah wah pedal (as Mojo magazine says “in Kouyaté’s hands,
the little lute, with its skin made from the head of a cow, becomes every bit as
thuggish as a distorted Les Paul.”). The sound on this new album is more rootsy
and reconnects to the beginnings of Bassekou's solo career and his celebrated
debut album ‘Segu Blue’
(2007). ‘Miri’ (“dream” or “contemplation” in the Bamana language) sees Bassekou in
a somber, contemplative mood, reflecting about life, love, friendship, family and
his country in a time of crisis. Mali’s problems are plentiful: egoism in politics,
Islamists, tensions between nomads and cultivators
and climate change (including the Niger river drying up). As always there is the intricate sound of Bassekou’s virtuoso ngoni playing – and, ever the innovator of the ngoni, one of the album’s stand out tracks, “Wele ni” sees him playing slide ngoni with a bottleneck.
Guests include Habib Koite, Afel Bocoum, Abdoulaye Diabate and Michael League (Snarky Puppy, Bokante) amongst others.