Siri Ba Kele

Baba Commandant is the stage name of Sanou Mamadou, a gritty-voiced singer and musician from Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second city and the cultural centre of the country's Mande population. This is his second album with the Mandingo Band and follows 2015's debut Juguya. That record was a stirring mix of Afrobeat rhythms with added doses of contemporary funk and the follow-up builds and expands on the style, giving greater prominence to the Mande-meets-psychedelia electric guitar solos of Issouf Diabaté, who channels the great Djelimady Tounkara's work with the Rail Band on tracks such as ‘Logo Fo Djelba’ and the cosmic jam of ‘Keleya’.

Recorded in Ouagadougou with the French producer Camille Louvel once again at the helm, the sound is crisp and expansive, the rhythm section of Massibo Taragna (bass) and Mohamed Sana (drums) locking into a mesmerising funk groove over which the soloists can strut. The balafon of Sami Kimpe adds layers of polyrhythmic mystery to ‘Bobira’ and ‘Siguisso’, Baba plucks his donsongoni (similar to the kamalengoni) with snapping intensity and his booming vocals are indeed commanding. There is, by all accounts, a thriving music scene in modern day Burkina Faso and Siri Ba Kele leaves you wanting to hear more.