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All Reviews >>

This cranking live set by Thione Seck and Raam Daan went down in Dakar to celebrate the 15th year of the mbalax star's career. Brief guest spots by Ismael Lo, Omar Pene and other Senegalese pop dignitaries give some hint of the significance of the event. And the music is certainly hot, and generally well recorded. Raam Daan pumps out the hard-driving sound that fans expect, and Seck is in sensational voice--as always--soaring over breakneck grooves with the ease of an eagle in full flight. "Mathiou" is particularly good. Chiming guitar mingles with a cycling organ part as the percussion section cracks and Seck seems to dream the melody over top. There's a poignant shift into a kind of religious chant, but it doesn't last long before the mbalax lashes back in. "Khalel," another taut-to-the-breaking-point mbalax anthem, is also sensational. The only downside is that as fine as this live recording is, it's too bad to get this when we've heard so little of Seck's twenty-odd studio releases. But there's good news. Djoniba Productions, the label that has released this title in 2001, is set to give us much more of Thione Seck, and presumably other Senegalese artists. It's about time!
Contributed by Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org