Gandadiko

"The mood is less bleak than his last set, Albala, recorded when radical Islamists controlled his village, but the title track - Gandadiko roughly translates as Burning Land - is an angry story of suffering and indifference, while Woyé Katé is a call for refugees to return. Elsewhere, there are morality tales about pollution, lazy men and the dangers of easy money, and translations of his powerful, poetic lyrics are thankfully provided - with the exception of those for a slinky trance song written to calm an evil djinn spirit, omitted "for your own security". The music is mature and confident".

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"The music is spectacularly inventive, measured and strong. Every element is poised and counterpointed and placed, largely taking the Ali Farka Touré path, but Samba plays with a more dramatic sense of deployment ... The voices and the instruments play off each other with real spirit and dimension, creating a spacy, almost theatrical experience. And there's variety: he does a very nifty Bo Diddley variant, for example, and a soul ballad too. But this is a serious record with intent: "We shall reconstruct the country/and we won't let anyone speak for us again". It's music that stands up and moves".