The blind Malian duo of Amadou & Mariam is jetting into South Africa to support Irish rock band U2 on the South African leg of their 360° Tour.
It’s a real shame that Africa’s premier pop stars will not be playing their own headlining shows while here — for those who can’t bare to sit through the bombast that is U2 live.
This will be the Malian’s second visit to South Africa in seven months — they played at the 2010 Fifa Kick-Off Concert. The duo are reported to be recording a new studio album, which will feature a host of guests, including the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s guitarist Nick Zinner and American pop star Santogold.
But as a stopgap they have just released a new remix album, Remixes 13 reworkings of some of their most famous hits from 2008’s Welcome to Mali and 2005’s Dimanche à Bamako. As is usually the case with remix albums, consistency is an issue — some take the songs to new places although others just feel half-arsed and boring.
But a real gem is the Mo DJ Remix of the Welcome to Mali track, Masiteladi, which is built around Amadou Bagayoko’s killer guitar riffing and combines electronic elements and the balafon to create a wonderful rhythm track.
Perhaps the reason that this particular remix is such a success is that it maintains the raw energy that was present on so many of the duo’s songs on Welcome to Mali or perhaps it’s just that Mo DJ, aka Moreike Keita, is a resident remixer of the stars in Mali’s capital, Bamako.
Fuzzy disco
Other highlights include French producer and DJ Yuksek’s remix of the Dimanche à Bamako track, Le Realite, which imagines the song as fuzzy disco anthem, reminiscent of the work of Daft Punk and South African DJ Aero’s minimalist take on Ce N’est Pas Bon, which gives the song a cold metallic sound.
It’s hardly surprising that Sabali, the stunning disco anthem from Welcome to Mali, pops up three times on the album — the Damon Albarn produced original was as near perfect a pop song as you can get.
Which brings up an interesting point — when a song is that perfect, by remixing it, surely you are on a hiding to nothing? Surely, you have to ask yourself the question: “Why mess with something this good?”
But Mike Snow, Grey X Sage and Vitalic did choose to and of the three Grey X Sage probably produced the most interesting remix, turning the song into a duet between Mariam Doumbia and New York-based MC Theophilus London.
Vitalic’s remix by comparison is just plain boring and Snow’s remix focuses on the cosmic elements of the song, giving it a sci-fi tinge. Laskez’s remix of Illbiwan gives it a slowed-down house beat that is almost kwaito and Ashley Beedle’s Afrikanz on Marz remix of Coulibaly maintains the song’s driving energy but gives the guitar a Hawaiian treatment that really adds to the original.
But some of the remixes really fall flat on their face, like Akon’s tepid remix of Coulibaly, which gives it a modern R&B sound and DJ Sabo’s remix of Artistiya, which just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
On the whole Remixes is interesting but in the end there may be only a handful that you would choose to be part of your regular listening. The album, which is out through Gallo Music in South Africa, is available only on import, so a more sensible option may be to pick up the tracks you want from the Nokia Music Store (http://music.ovi.com), which is selling the entire album for R100, or for R8 a remix.
Amadou & Mariam will support U2 on their 360° Tour. They will perform at Soccer City in Johannesburg on February 13 and at Cape Town Stadium on February 18.