There was a time when the term “world music” seemed to be a pointless label. It was used to describe everything from Classic Indian music to Bulgarian folk choirs, Latin salsa bands to Australian aboriginal sounds; as a phrase, it was so broadly stretched as to be almost meaningless.
But as we moved into the modern world, the term started to stand for something else. It was more and more applied to nomadic artists, ones who travelled the world mixing the music of their homeland with the new cultures that they found themselves surrounded by. As such creatives travelled, explored and merged, so did their music. Today’s world musician is as broadminded, genre-blending and wide-ranging as anyone to me found in music, soaking up influences from country, culture and creed like a sponge and using those to create music that is truly music of the world. Moh Dediouf is just such an artist.
Often called The Picasso of African Music, Moh Dediouf‘s latest album is a heady blend of the musical traditions of Senegal and the sounds of western soul, pop, dance and jazz, a reflection of his formative years spent in everywhere from Dakar to Europe to The US. Cultures both clash and compliment each other and the result is glorious.
Aidaaa runs on an intoxicating groove, and the song seems to have one foot in homespun Afro-Beat vibes and the other in a sort of soulful, R&B groove, albeit one delivered through a very different filter than that which we are normally presented with. Remix Dakar is rich with exotic sounds and gorgeous dance rhythms and Touba Lovers is intoxicating in its otherworldliness, at least to my less well travelled western ears.
Moh Dediouf is a truly modern artist, one who is able to surf musical genres as easily as he steps over geographical borders and the resulting blend of location and sound is something that could only exist in the fluid and culturally diverse world of today.
