This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen Magazine #100 (June/July 2002). the magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Radio Planet 3
by Cliff Furnald

One of the problems with having your fingers in so many pies is that you inevitably become unfocused, distracted, or just plain aimless. When I sit down to write this column, I try desperately to get some focus, some thread of an idea that I can carry through to the end. It's that education rearing its ugly head, demanding a theme, an outline, and an execution. Of course, the world's not like that, especially when it comes to art and music, so what I am left with this month is an archipelago of isolated little islands of charm, unexpected wonder, or deep disturbance.

Les Soeurs Diabaté, Mama, Sayon, and Sona, offer a collection of Donkili Diarabi (Guinean love songs) that are as welcoming and familiar as you could ask for. The singing sisters (actually, Sona and Sayon are sisters, Mama is what the liner notes refer to as their "soul sister") all come from Farbanah, Guinea. Sona played for many years with the famous Amazones de Guniée. Sister Sayon is a member of the her older sister's current band. Mama is possibly a little less known outside of Africa than Sona, singing with the Horoya Band in Conakry in the 1980s and 90s, and more recently with Koffi Cola. Here they are joined by guitarist Lenké Condé (Horoya again), Adama Condé on balafon, and Tchemsé Kanté on the bolon. There is nothing new here, and perhaps that is its power; this music is light, fervent, and simply lovely. The sisters take turns leading and backing up one another, singing original poetic love songs that seem as old as the mountains, familiar, and warm.

There are five more recordings discussed in this column from Dirty Linen #100 (June/July '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.