"Mali Music" is a collaboration between Blur's Damon Albarn and a groupof musicians from Mali, hence the title. A recent New York Times pieceabout the making of this album brought up the inevitable issue ofcultural piracy and whether Western artists can effectively play withAfrican musicians without somehow exploiting them or tainting thepurity of their music. I feel that setting strict boundaries like thatlimit the overall possibilities of musical creativity and to be honest,I wouldn't have bought an album called "Mali Music" if it didn't havethe added recognizable hook. And I'm glad I did buy it, for a number ofreasons. First of all, the music is really good and different from mostof the new stuff that I listen to; overall it has a much happier,organic feel to it than what's in my normal rotation. Also Albarn'sadditions help add texture, like the dubby bass he puts under the finaltrack, "Les Escrocs" and his minimal vocals throughout the album. Asidefrom his vocals in English on a couple tracks, mostly he stays out ofthe way and leaves it to the musicians from Mail to perform theirmusic. The Times article mentioned that he went to Mali armed only witha melodica in order to keep his role simple and unobtrusive. Hiscontributions are important though and help add a familiar structure tosongs that might otherwise become inaccessible. On the track "SunsetComing On" he expertly weaves his vocals into the instrumental withoutoverwhelming it. I enjoyed listening to the new (to me) instruments andfor most of the album they meshed well with the modern layers ofproduction underneath. Another thing that I liked about the album isthat the proceeds go to Oxfam, a hunger relief organization that helpedsponsor the collaboration. So even if you don't agree with my musicalassessment, at least you won't feel guilty about adding this CD to yourcollection.
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