Savane

Ay chihuahua that was a snoozefest

Eerder mochten we een mijmer-album van Ali beluisteren. Dit komt wel terug op dit album, maar het album is veel gevarieerder. Daardoor valt wel op dat de zang niet altijd even zuiver is. Ik luister deze keer via de TV en dat beïnvloedt de luister-ervaring. Want ik kijk de hele tijd tegen een ontzettend vrolijke volle lach van een muzikant aan. Ik neem aan dat dat dan Ali is. Kunnen we afspreken dat alle muzikanten voor gewoon uitstralen dat ze er zin in hebben? Daarmee verdien je van mij alvast je eerste ster!

More richly produced and fully arranged than his more bare bones early 90s albums, AFT reaps the rewards of his breakthrough into the world music genre on this album. It's a more fully realized, if slightly more generic sound as a result. His guitar work is great, all mesmerizing drones and melodic fills, working with and against the kora GOAT Toumani Diabate to weave together a complex call and response, polyrhythmic, relaxed but super energetic sound. The sokou single string violin adds an awesome lead element and extra melodic voice on a few songs, really bringing that wild trancey velvet underground sound. I might've picked In the Heart of the Moon over this one, but this is a great representation of Malian music at its moment of peak global recognition.

This is African blues. Well, technically all blues is African, but you know what I mean. Good album.

The time work on Erdi is really arresting. The title track is awesome. N'jarou is a real soothing closer.

>3 <4

1.92

Blues with a worldly twist, great ambience. Something I'd never normally listen to, but I'll Definitely give this another spin

2.5

I can see quite a lot of potential in Savane, unfortunately it is bogged down by quite a few issues. First, the good, Ali's voice actually fit very well with the songs and i can see quite a few cool music ideas in place which could have been good if the album didn't suffer from these three issues. One, The album's composition is very messy and feels more like random sounds at random times rather than proper, coherent music. Two, The album is a fairly long one at 58 minutes which would be okay if it weren't for this last issue. Three, The songs sound too similar to each other, I had this problem with quite a few albums on this project but with messy composition and a long length, this issue is really brought out in the open. There is a good album hiding inside this one, its just too bad that these issues prevent it from coming out.
Best Song: Beto
Worst Song: Savane

I had one of Ali's albums he did with Ry Cooder before. He is called the pioneer of "desert blues", which is African blues. Dude is from Mali. This album is great! Ali's guitar work on this album is insane!

Favourite songs: Soya, N'Jarou, Soko Yhinka, Penda Yoro, Yer Bounda Fara, Machengoidi

Least favourite songs: Erdi

4/5

Too bad, I thought I would hear new blues for myself. There were also a few good approaches. Nevertheless, it did not meet my taste at any point. More and more the music got on my nerves. When I jumped for minutes in individual pieces and didn't notice any change, I stopped the album.
1/5

Going in, I already know that blues is something I do not vibe with at all, so just going with the flow of the music is hardly an option for me. Flow, to me, feels like something to groove to, perhaps even dance a little, but this album suffers heavily from seemingly having nothing going on. Perhaps lyrically it is more investible, or maybe I should be blown away by the guitar picking, which I can admit is technically quality, but is incredibly dull, and the appearance of minimal percussion as well as rarely a brass or woodwind instrument, just leaves the album feeling barren. Not in a personal nor gripping way, but rather something to understand as its bare minimum the moment you hear it. Once you hear the first track, that't it, you are not getting something deeper here. It won't have a shocking twist track, it won't courtesy you and change to something more interesting, and even if you are a person only here for the "vibe," its hour long runtime only aims to make every track even more repetitive. I was sick of the songs here, ten minutes in, so another forty-five only lead to pure annoyance. It never dives into something offensive, and maybe you'll find yourself getting it more than me and be pleased by the overloaded tracks, but I find this to be a pretty obvious case of an album receiving more praise due to its creator sadly passing away before it release, and while that is a shame, and I mean that, I do not see anything truly remarkable about the music. Add in the fact that this from 2006, and I fail to see why this would be any more essential than any other blues record, and the genre crossover of Songhai music does nothing to the blues presented other than making something more dry a little more humid, and that isn't really a good thing, I feel. Tedious, and due to its length, annoying.

Serviceable blues. Wish I spoke the language to know what he is singing about.

Blues with an African flavor is certainly interesting, I just don't care for the blues.

A great combination of Subsaharan, Blues and Folk. Something unique and some songs have a hypnotising beauty.

Great vibe and sound, but I just don’t think I’m a smart enough listener to be able to love something like this for a whole album.

3.5/5

I've always really liked African Blues. Which is sort of an odd genre when you think about it. I can definitely see why Ali Farka Toure gets compared to John Lee Hooker, particularly the voice but he's not quite as gravelly. Excellent guitar playing on this record and his tone in particular fits perfectly for his style. Listening to this record makes me think that he was probably just a cool dude to hang out with, no idea if there is any truth to that. Overall this is a super relaxing album and it's great that it was included here. 4/5

Hypnotic.

So light and yet it has so much substance. Like Tom Waits without the gravelly gruffness. I could honestly listen to this forever.