For sometime I'd been on an elusive search for the West African metal musicians. It appeared that metal didn't exist the Sahel. Enter Shine. Band leader Daouda Dao is a professor at the Arts Conservatory of Bamako. It's Bamako's art school, with active theater courses, plastic arts, visual arts, and…
Caught this on the radio late night in Sikasso. This is more or less a live in studio example of the "balani show" remix, performed on a sampler, with CDJs. I don't have anymore info, but it's brilliant. Radio Sikasso - Balani Remix
Missirikoro field recording Missirikoro is a small village south of Sikasso. It's only 12 kilometers away, but the road is all red dirt and rocks - unpaved, but heavily traveled. As you approach the village, you can see the strange mountain rising above the tree line. It is a small…
Vieux Balani - Balafon Spent a few days in the South of Mali in Sikasso -- a region stunningly different from the North. This is green Mali, with rice paddies, giant tropical trees, and red earth. Water is everywhere. People like to joke that everything is free in Sikasso. It's…
DJ Sandji started djing years ago with cassette decks. He now uses a combination of CDJs, Virtual DJ, and a sampler. The sampler seems to always use the same kit - the one with the whistles and claps, which has evolved to be a signature element of Balani Show (Sandji…
Supreme Talent Show, Facebook Danbe by Supreme Talent Show Supreme Talent Show is a Malian duo, Mèlékè Thiathio and MC Waraba. Their music is hard to classify, at least in recognizable Western terms (which may suggest how far the international music scene lags behind). It's bass heavy and the bpms…