Bamako Sessions
Riverboat Records (52 mins)
Invisible System, aka producer and multi-instrumentalist Dan Harper, is best known for his heavy dub-rock takes on Ethiopian music, drafting in huge names such as Mahmoud Ahmed, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara.
For this album, Harper used his usual technique: set up a studio, bring in a rotating cast of local musicians to jam, and dub the results. This time though, he’s back in Mali, where he made his first recordings back in 1999. His guests are solid as always – Songhai bluesman Sidi Touré is probably the best-known and provides some cool guitar parts – and kora, balafon and ngoni are all well represented. It’s all instrumental and all improvised.
Malian dubtronic fusions are not exactly new, and Bamako Sessions just isn’t as adventurous as some of Harper’s earlier work, especially 2009’s fantastic Punt. The tracks all sound basically similar and a little repetitive; there’s no psychedelic dub-outs, it’s all rather low-key. There’s nothing bad about it, but there’s nothing exciting either. Invisible System has proved capable of making intense and interesting fusions, so it’s disappointing to hear an average album in a style where other artists have flourished in the past.