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ARTIST : Issa Bagayogo
TITLE : Issa Remixed-WEB
LABEL : Six Degrees Records
GENRE : World RLS DATE : 2009-08-11
YEAR : 2009 STORE DATE : 2009-09-20
BITRATE : 320kbps avg SIZE : 187.49 megs
SOURCE : www.sixdegreesrecords.com
Tracklist:
----------
1. Filaw (Shrift Remix) 7:24
2. Poye (Tal M. Klein Remix) 8:24
3. Ciew Mawele (Adham Shaikh's Dusty Foot Remix) 7:20
4. Filaw (Soft Rocks Remix) 9:11
5. Poye (Rise Ashen Remix) 5:39
6. Touba (Kabanjak Remix) 4:13
7. Filaw (Chief Boima Remix) 6:15
8. Touba (Tapan's Punditz Mix) 6:54
9. Filaw (Pleasuremaker Remix) 5:48
10. Koroto (Deela Remix) 5:49
11. Filaw (Rise Ashen Rub) 5:11
12. Filaw (Senor Oz Remix) 5:22
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
77:30
Release notes:
--------------
Issa Bagayogo may seem like an unlikely candidate for international dancefloor
success. His home country of Mali is one of the ten poorest nations in the
world, and one in which economic and professional opportunities tend to be
shaped by one's caste and ethnic origins û and Issa's heritage pointed him less
in the direction of music than in those of blacksmithing and fishing. But at a
young age he demonstrated a talent for playing the ngoni, a three-stringed lute
that is popular throughout western Africa (under a variety of names) and may be
the direct ancestor of the banjo. In Mali the ngoni is normally reserved for
sacred contexts related to hunting, so youngsters who wanted to avoid
controversy invented a six-string version for everyday use. This remains Issa's
primary instrument û another unlikely element in the story of his rapid ascent
to worldwide fame.
In the mid-1990s, musical success looked even more remote. After making several
recordings and failing to have a regional hit with any of them, Issa was making
his living driving a bus while also descending into drug addiction. Eventually
he lost his job and his wife, and moved back to the country to stay with his
mother. But in the latter half of the decade he made the decision that would
change his life and alter the face of the world music scene: he quit taking
drugs, moved to Bamako (Mali's capital city) and hit the studio again, this time
working with a locally famous production team to create a highly personal sound
that combined the acoustic traditions of his region with elements of rock, funk,
dub and electronica.
Ten years and four albums later, Issa Bagayogo is a regular star attraction on
stages around the continent, playing for huge and wildly enthusiastic audiences.
His reception outside of Africa has been warm as well. Reviewing one of his
pneumatic live shows, England's Folk Roots magazine marveled at his energy,
saying that he "may radically reshape West Africa's grooveà when Issa plays,
only the dead stay still." His second album, Timbuktu, hit the top of the CMJ
New World chart, and Utne Reader called it "fine as Sahara sand," while
Billboard said it was time to "add this man's name to the growing list of Mali's
emerging world-music luminaries.
The critical response to Tassoumakan, his third release, was even more
enthusiastic. "His most appealing and ambitious record to dateà a classic of
modern Malian music," raved Billboard, and the Village Voice characterized the
album's grooves as "the finest Afro-European rhythmic structures Mali can
provide." The All Music Guide concurred, pronouncing Tassoumakan "the perfect
balance between roots music and modernity."
The critical community must be licking its chops in anticipation of Mali Koura,
Issa's new release, and it is sure not to be disappointed. Issa's sound has
matured, tightened and ripened into a fully-realized Afro-European hybrid û no
longer does it sound like a fusion of two separate cultures, but rather like the
fully-evolved music of a brand new culture. On tracks like "Tcheni Tchemakan"
there is a seamless blend of circular chord structure, call-and-response vocals
(the lyrics sung in Wolof, of course), a relentlessly chugging, house-derived
rhythm, and the subtlest touches of electronic texture filling in some of the
spaces. Even the gently lurching and completely non-European rhythm of "Dibi"
somehow absorbs and embraces the extended jazz chords and guitar runs that weave
through the song like a silvery thread. On "Dunu Kan," the groove is even
jazzier, with a swinging horn section and a funky organ, while Issa's vocals
dance lightly and joyfully above them. There's also a horn section on "N'Tana,"
but here the horns are even denser, mirroring the sweet harmonies of the female
backing vocalists; a woody-toned flute adds sturdy but elegant filigrees of
sound while the beat churns tirelessly beneath. On this track, Issa's vocal is
declamatory but self-contained.
"Ahe Sira Bila" hints subtly at reggae, while the bassline incorporates popping
funk elements and the vocals strike a calm, almost conversational tone. A
marimba drops by to leave a string of pearlescent solo passages near the end.
"Namadjidja" is darker and more regretful in tone, with a distantly plinking
piano and quiet synthesizer moans over multilayered percussion. "Fimani" is
custom-made for the dancefloor, with a bouncy four-on-the-floor beat, brightly
tuneful harmony vocals, and horns that blossom unexpectedly out of nowhere
before fading away as quickly as they emerged.
One significant reason that the music sounds different this time out is the
dramatically different recording approach taken by Issa and his collaborators on
this project. Producer Yves Wernert explains that normally, Issa proposes ten to
fifteen songs to which the two of them then create arrangements in Wernert's
Bogolan studio. This time, however, "the strategy was completely different. For
this new album, Issa recorded the songs freely on his own, all by himself
outside of my house in Bamako û once in a while you can hear birds or mopeds
going by. All of the Malian instruments were recorded more or less the same way,
either outside the house or in my kitchen."
Once he had the various instrumental tracks recorded, Wernert took them back to
his home town of Nancy, France, where he got together with a number of
musicians, most notably the fearsomely talented multi-instrumentalist Gael Le
Billan; according to both Wernert and Issa, Le Billan brought a "tremendous
effort" to the arranging and final production of these tracks, as well as
contributing guitar, bass, keyboard, accordion and other instrumental parts.
Interestingly, none of the additional tracks was recorded in a studio either û
Wernert says that he "never once set foot in a studio during the making of this
album."
Almost as impressive as the unique recording approach is the roster of guest
musicians who appear on Mali Koura. It includes flutist Ba Diallo (who plays
regularly with the National Ensemble of Mali); the French guitarist Pascale
Hubert (of Double Nelson); djembe player Adama Diarra (famed for his work with
some of Mali's greatest griots as well as jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater); and
Issa's longtime guitarist Mama Sissoko.
Take all of these elements together û a fully mature singer of international
stature, a creative and musically sympathetic producer with resources and
connections in both Mali and France; a constantly-expanding roster of
enthusiastic sidemen anxious to participate in the transcontinental experiment;
an out-of-the-box recording strategy û and the result is one of the warmest,
most surprising and most exciting albums of African music in a decade.