Lost in Mali : off the beaten track from Bamako to Timbuktu

"Just the type of anthology to set the mouth watering: all new artists, just one song each, sympathetically recorded, playing as if their careers depended on it. Mali is legendarily fertile in music, and here is the cream of the upcoming generation as picked out by a couple of sharp-eared producers. Variety, depth and intensity are here in full measure. Musical styles meet and interconnect and there is no chance to get bored ... We hear shifting permutations of parched desert passion, testifying Wassoulou voices, scratchy lutes, mesmerising xylophones and flutes, jaunty beats and the heavy underground surge of the Sahara. It's a rich and satisfying mix that brings promise for the future".