Muzikfan,
Album Review
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With no preamble, Lobi launches into another scorching set of electric blues from Mali. He has bass and drums backing him, but also a well-slapped djembe and balafon continuo on half the cuts. This album was recorded live in two sessions in February 2007 and February 2008. Throughout he demonstrates the drive and virtuosity that propelled him to the top of my charts with his 2006 release on Honest Jons. This album surpasses even that for intensity and sheer power: he indeed cooks a spoonful. Moribo Kouyate is still with him on balafon; I doubt anyone else could keep up. Unfortunately Lobi died last year -- not even fifty years old. Born in a village outside Segou on the banks of the Niger in 1961 he took to the Bambara culture readily as both parents sang in a secret society known as "Komo." (Komo is one of the three main power societies in Bamana culture: the other two are Kono and Nama. The Bamana have their own system of writing and unique metaphysical and cosmological concepts.) At 16 Lobi moved to the big city and played guitar with a folkloric troupe for three years before joining the Djata Band of Zani Diabaté. After tours of France and Ivory Coast, Lobi decided to go solo. He returned to the Bozo Bar in Bamako and grouped traditional musicians around his electrified lead guitar & power-rock trio. It's unusual to have such raucous guitar in this context but it works well. He recorded half a dozen albums with this combo. He plays long trancelike solos that remind me of ragas while the continuo adds a solid underpinning. This, his latest from Kanaga System Krush, is pure joy. Fans of Cream and Velvet Underground will also be delighted by it. The Bamana blacksmiths are members of the Komo cult because of their ability to transform materials through the medium of fire. Lobi's musical tricks are both incendiary and transformative. 05/01/11
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