New releases this week: Funk

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.