Amazon.co.uk Review
Wasis Diop is a singer-songwriter hailing from Dakar but based in Paris, and in
Toxu he's found a way of blending all the influences through which his singular talent has flowered. He's a Wolof like his countryman Youssou N'Dour, and in his songs he alternates that guttural language with English and French. His first number celebrates the freeing of Soweto, his 13th is the now-obligatory hymn to the future of Africa. He also plays host, in one beguiling track, to the blind West-African duo Amadou and Mariam. Add to all this a Japanese-American singer called Kaoru and a galaxy of guitarists, and the mix you end up with is heady, indeed. This is an intensely likeable record, with its driving rhythms and its warm studio effects balanced by the evocative sounds of the rainforest. Wasis Diop's own performances are compelling: his voice is a deep growl that can sound insinuating or menacing, but the message of his lyrics is innocence itself.
--Michael Church
fRoots, June 2001
Who could resist a Wolof reworking of "Once In A Lifetime"? Once again Africa gives, receives and gives back, the loop reanimated, the result not at all what might have been expected. It's quiet, thoughtful and rural, a real piece of respect for Talking Heads. And there are plenty more excellent original songs--this first British release of Diop's second album (with extra tracks) is simply bursting with good stuff. A cosmopolitan approach with lots of floating, drifting textures produces a similar eclectic, non-localised feel to Peter Gabriel or Geoffrey Oryema's albums. Everything is firmly anchored by understated rhythms that swing, as simple as needs be, with an emphasis on the intimate from the Diop's voice which is just lovely--deep, breathy, conversational, always evocative. My friend George says you can grade an African record in inverse proportion to the number of times you hear the word Africa in it. Diop does indeed have a track here devoted to African unity, but everything else about
Toxu is pure class, demonstrating that roots are a matter of aesthetic sensibility rather than geographic happenstance. This is a fine and frequently moving record, a great collaboration between producer (Wally Badorou), artist, and co-workers.
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