Pekos & Yoro Diallo

Untitled (2007) ...

West African blues from Bougani, Mali... Recorded straight to boombox, late 1990s ...

Yalla Yalla disc, track 1 ... 

 Liner notes: "I was told by a cassette vendor in Bougouni, Mali, that this was recorded in Kolondieba, a then electricityless village two hours into the brousse from Bougouni. It was probably recorded on a boombox sometime in 1998 or '99. There is no way to verify any of this, Bougounians being skeptical of verification generally."

"One afternoon while meandering through Bougouni's sole market, a line of tar paper and lean-to shanties, I heard what initially sounded like an insane man giving birth. Listening more closely, I heard an insistent and funky beat percolating forth from the shadows of my main cassette man Abdoulaye's stall, interspersed with the utterances of the same man who sounded so insane; now he sounded as if he was gargling glass. I wandered into Abdoulaye's place and pointed at the boombox. He immediately started laughing. The tape was recorded in Kolondieba, he thought, a village not too far from Bougouni. The performers, Pekos and Yoro Diallo, were quite popular in the region. They were playing electrified ngonis in something like the kamelen or 'youth' style. Ngonis are large spike lutes; a four to five foot length of wood or reed is jammed into a hollowed out gourd and strings, often fishing line, are connected from a bridge at the base of the instrument to the end of the neck. Only the fancier ngonis have tuning pegs; most are tuned by pushing the strings with the thumbs to within a range that satisfies the player or the notes of a particular pentatonic scale. Since it's basically a harp there is no fretting of notes. Abdoulaye was able to tell me that these guys would put old mics inside of the gourds of their ngonis, run it to a preamp and thence to one of the ubiquitous horn speakers that serve as p.a.'s throughout Mali." ... forcedexposure.com ...

"Which finally leads to the Pekos/Yoro Diallo disc. Supposedly recorded straight to boombox two hours into the bush from Bougouni in the late ’90s, this is some of the hottest and most repetitive string-based music I’ve ever heard. The fact that it's often distorted, wavering or occasionally off-pitch matters little once the opening track hits. The vocal duets, declamatory and gruff, spill from the speakers and threaten to override the rhythmic fire broiling underneath them. On the final 20-minute track, the musicians are play outside themselves, weaving spells and daring listeners to sit still. Carneal should earn a Grammy for simply rescuing this from battered cassette." ...
dustedmagazine.com ...