Review: Captured during a fiery two-night stand at the Fillmore Auditorium in October 1966, these recordings catch the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at full throttle: lean, charged, on the edge of (controlled) chaos. Broadcast six years later on KSAN during Bill Graham's takeover of the station, the sets offer a rare document of the band's searing live form. With Paul Butterfield on harp and vocals, Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop duelling on guitars, and Mark Naftalin's swirling organ lines, this was the group's classic lineup pushing electric blues into new terrain. The final stretch brings a heavyweight finale: Muddy Waters and Luther Johnson join for the last four tracks, adding deep Chicago grit to an already smouldering set.
Review: Ali brings together Malian guitarist and singer Vieux Farka Toure with Houston-based trio Khruangbin for pattern-textured tribute to Vieux's father, the legendary Ali Farka Toure. The group chose to reinterpret Ali's music, drawing on a shared sense of space and groove to honour his legacy without embalming it. Recorded in just a week in a barn in Burton, Texas, the sessions came steeped in warmth and mutual respect, with the final tracklist curated by Ali's eleven children. Khruangbin's dusky, reverb-heavy style embed the earthy, cyclical patterns of the recently popularised Malian desert blues, each side subtly reshaping the other sound while drawing parallels between North American and West African takes on the same name. Though long delayed by the pandemic, what has emerged is an unhurried traditional group mind, invoked to tread newer ground in songs erstwhile deemed well-trodden.
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