Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès: Aw Sa Yone Vol. I

Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès
Aw Sa Yone Vol. I
Teranga Beat
2013-06-11

Teranga Beat is back again, releasing recorded-but-unreleased 1970s albums from the Senegalese city of Thiès as they did in late 2012 with the terrific Kadior Demb. Aw Sa Yone Vol. 1 has a similar cool mbalax sound, the saxophone, the guitar, the singers announcing themselves with luscious shouts. The band is different in Aw and the tracks are longer – 10 minutes long in some cases, 12 minutes in “Yandé” – against Kadior Demb‘s seven minutes or four minutes, and this makes a difference; you have a greater sense of epic accomplishment, gradual crawl, building and transforming or expanding its idea of itself over time. Less than a minute into “Sibaye”, you know this is going to be an intense slow-burn. The song moves in humping nudges: a row of trumpets will rise and drop, one of the three singers will utter a pliant, a drum will shudder and halt. Good commanding singers. “Aw Sa Yone Vol. 1 includes the biggest part of their second recording” states the publicity, and the store-bought CD product will come with “a booklet with photos and liner notes outlining the group members’ careers,” which sounds enticing but my version doesn’t have it and I can’t comment.

RATING 8 / 10