Amadou and Mariam - 'Welcome To Mali' (Because Music) Released 17/11/08

hythms are explored with a pop breeze on ‘Je Te Kiffe’, while ‘Masiteladi’ and ‘Unissons Nous’ form kick-ass pieces of funk-pop. ‘DJama’ slips in to a reggae groove with soul-jazz sass from organ and shades of Manu Chao, and ‘Compagnon De La Vie’ has the soul-jazz big band celebration with a James Brown cadence and funky organ only offset by the cooing Mariam. The Tinariwen-like ‘DJuru’ employs the great Toumani Diabate with a sublime subtlety as hypnotic tribal-like verse weaves about Diabate’s kora, whilst the well-titled ‘Bozos’ steps down the gears with a ngoni lute and 2-note piano keys, yet the chamber-piece on ‘I Follow You’ cannot reprise one of those excruciating pieces of song best left indiscernible, Amadou singing - “…baby I think of you/ everyday/ every night…” that sounds unremittingly stalkerish with all the “following you” talk.

‘Welcome To Mali’ finishes with a party, the closer ‘Sebeke’ showing virtuoso riffs and retro-futuristic synth with what appears to be an arrangement from Duran Duran’s ‘Planet Earth’. There’s more than one way to kick up a sandstorm, and Amadou & Mariam show an assimilated Western musical identity in the manner of the Trojan heyday. Timbuktu is no longer the place that nobody knows where the hell it is.