AKA MOON — Culture Griot (review)

AKA MOON — Culture Griot album cover Album · 2009 · Eclectic Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Sean Trane
Belgium's premium trio is always looking for new adventures, and even if they aren't as prolific as they were a few years back, they can still pleasantly surprise us, as is the case in Cuklture Griot, where they collaborate with the Sissoko clan. The trio always claimed some African influences (their name is linked with Pygmy tribes), even though this writer prefer the Soft Machine tracks on Vol 2 as more descriptive of their music.

The album opens on a confirmed African touch, Western-African (a Griot is a Malian wiseman/shaman) at that and sets the tone for the album. It is sometimes amazing that AM is actually taking a backseat, letting the African group take all of the spotlight on some tracks as if they were powerless to bring something more than African bass and drums, making the second half of the album quite overlong and repetitive. AM is still very much there as can be heard on the superb Aka Teri Ya (Amitié), where they really shine, and on Aka Giulia (Giulia), where the trio is meddling completely with the Black Machine. If the first five tracks are quite enjoyable and even a bit of a novelty, the surprise effect slowly disappears and leaves a sensation of just more-of-the-same. Obviously the trio is out to show all of the subtleties of West-African music, but my poor under-developed European ears (since AM is always busy telling us that others do music soooooo much better) are simply not able to do so, or simply don't care. If Galland almost disappears in the African rhythms , Hatzi's bass often shines and is more audible. Cassol's interventions are always appropriate, but obviously he must wait for the right moments, which come numerous enough to make it interesting still for him.

One idea would be to play the album starting from track 5 to maybe give the latter pieces a better chance to shine as would probably Aka Folo Folo (Auparavant). But as the album unfolds, the mood remains a bit too much the same throughout a duration on an hour+. Overall, the trio manages a fine album, one that will grace their lengthy discography filled with ethnic experimentations, where this .
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