Amadou & Mariam

Welcome to Mali (Because Music/Nonesuch)

2005’s Dimanche a Bamako percolated more like a mic-check to producer Manu Chao’s own La Radiolina than this blind Mali couple’s much ballyhooed Western outage, and though Damon Albarn opener “Sabali” swings London, A&M’s follow-up bottles their joyous West African boogie. Dancing desert blues refract Parisian pop while still best at home in the title trance, “Africa,” and hard-jangled closer “Sekebe.”

***.5

This article appears in June 5 • 2009.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.