Sigil

Kane, Nuru – Sigil (Riverboat)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 4/12/06
Combination of Senegalese roots of blues and Moroccan gnawa (trance chanting with strings and clackers). Mostly acoustic, mostly recorded “live”, e.g. all together and in one take. Mostly in Senegalese (?) with a bit of spoken French. Liner notes in English and French – check out the song concepts towards the end of the booket. Mostly mellow and lovely, all male vocals, often minimal to no percussion.
I liked 2, 3 and 7 best, mostly because they have a bit of a beat. All of it is nice sounding, and an unusual combination of African styles.
1. *mellow and slow, plucked instruments and impassioned vocals.
2. **uptempo and urgent – what Motorhead would sound like with gnawa instrumentation. Some call and response.
3. **Islamic chanting intro, uptempo, rather freeform, definite desert Arab stylings. About the anger felt towards bad leaders.
4. Sweet and slow, guitar and violin, melancholy lyrics.
5. Midtempo loping shuffle, pretty plucked arpeggios, choral backing. Switches to slower beat with accordion. Definitely interesting instrumentation.
6. *VERY “roots of blues” – slow, cool picking.
7. **midtempo, very much gnawa, call and response with humming, bluesy. Builds furiously.
8. *Uptempo, less gnawa sound, nice choral sound. Fuzz guitar solo.
9. Mellow and slow, very pretty vocals. A bit jazzy.
10. Builds slowly from very mellow gnawa into a bit of a swingy groove – some spoken French in middle.
11. *Solo singing at start – instruments come in almost a minute along. Slow bluesy groove.
12. Violin and plucked instruments, minimal percussion. Slow, lovely vocals. Some spoken French, sad song about exploitation of Africa.