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LP
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US 5711LP
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The Malian Dogon ethnic group are notorious worldwide for their animal masks and ritual dances. Their incredible astronomical knowledge -- important festivals are based on the orbit of Sirius B, a planet that cannot be seen with the naked eye -- has puzzled Western researchers for over a hundred years. But has anyone ever heard of the music of this myth-enshrouded people? Petit Goro was the first musician to adapt the traditional Dogon rhythms for a young, modern audience, indeed he is the very first Dogon pop star. When he straps on his guitar on one of Bamako's open-air stages, thousands of dancers kick up the dust. It's a sound that sometimes sounds as if Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and the one-chord vamps of Mississippi Hill Country Blues have moved to the Niger. Pentatonic chords. Dogon chants. And the pull of his band -- which rides towards trance with bass, guitar and traditional percussion. Petit Goro sings about the struggle for their own culture and identity. The pop star is the figurehead of a new movement: in the face of the threat -- almost every week a Dogon village is attacked by jihadists -- the young Dogon have rediscovered their endangered animist traditions. Everywhere in Bamako, young people can be seen proudly wearing their Dogon costumes. Petit Goro, however, carries their message out into the world, rocking archaic traditions with a Dogon blues that has never been heard before.
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