Bush Taxi Mali review

MOJO 12/04 David Hutchison Damon Albarn's remarkable Mali Music hinted at the magnificent depths of that country's culture. He captured an essence, not of the commercial stuff (Super Rail Band, say, or Salif Keita) but of the informal, ad hoc sounds that apparently exist at every street corner, every ferry, every market, just like doo-wop supposedly once did in New York. It's not like that, of course, and Albarn's album was a masterpiece of cut-n-paste. Tucker Martine has compiled an intoxicating taste of life in Kela, Mopti, Djenne, Segou and Bamako. Snippets of radio broadcasts, wedding celebrations, proper songs at dance parties and moments seized while walking at dawn; the ghostly wailing of the ngoni, great-grandfather to the guitar, otherworldly flutes, children chatting and animals doing their thing. Got your plane ticket yet?