PEKOS/YORO DIALLO

" Pekos and Yoro Diallo, two singer-instrumentalists who are popular in the region, play electrified ngoni, lutelike instruments often made out of nothing more than a hollow gourd, some fishing line, and a 4-to-5 foot spike of wood. The pickups used to amplify these primitive instruments create sonic problems throughout. Yet the feedback is hardly the harshest aspect of this concert recording. Both singers have booming, near-angry voices, and they punctuate their minimalist funk, or kamelen, with instrumental outbursts that all but oversaturate the tape." (Brent Burton, www.washingtoncitypaper.com)