Magg Tekki
Mississippi Records (34 mins)
Assiko Golden Band have been a fixture on the Dakar music scene for the past 20 years, representing the Senegalese capital’s most populous – and crowded – neighbourhood of Grand Yoff. In its current form, the group is a 17-strong collective of drums, percussion and voices spanning three generations, let by poet, singer and flute player Djiby Ly. Amid the dense rhythmic tapestry, lyrics in Wolof and French give positive messages of power, hope and encouragement to stand up for those who have less, with spiritual references to Sufi Islam and Christianity throughout.
Although the band have been going for decades at this point, Magg Tekki is their debut album, and its sound has been very much crafted by Swedish producer Karl-Jonas Winqvist (also the architect behind the Wau Wau Collectif). Assiko Golden Band themselves were recorded in Dakar, but saxophones, accordion, kora, additional percussion and production effects were added later on in Stockholm. While these additions work well and supplement the Senegalese sound with references from Afrobeat, jazz and European folk, it would have been nice to hear the band in their unadulterated, direct-from-Grand Yoff form that has made them so popular in their own scene.