a point is all that you can score
I was listening to a couple of excellent new CDs for the station this week: Ishumar by Toumast. They are in the same "desert blues" style as Tinariwen. In fact, Moussa Ag Kenya, founder of Toumast, was formerly in Tinariwen. Perhaps. The internets seem conflicted on this information. Where Tinariwen's sound tends a bit towards the ascetic and serious, Toumast is a bit more expansive. Perhaps because they're based in France and working with African and European musicians. They do add new elements to the basic Touareg sound. In one track they play the wailing ululations (still one of the most amazing sounds) against a string section. Quite spectacular. As is probably clear to anyone who's read this blog for a while, I'm not much of a roots music purist. So the fact that Toumast are building on the original sound as defined by Tinariwen (who have been performing for over a decade, altho their recordings have only been available in the US for the last few years) and looking to move into new sonic territories (egad... fusion!) does not strike me as automatically a bad thing. Altho I'm sure it does to many world music types.
So not my problem...
And speaking of insane fusions, there's Don Cavalli who comes on like the long-lost French cousin of R. L. Burnside. With some Jon Spencer and Little Axe thrown in. Plus some bits o' reggae and soul and Cajun stomp. And a cover of Gershwin's "Summertime." And cover art that looks like it was done by a middle school art student in 1975 with a big pack of Flair markers. Bluesy funky good time, y'all.