MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Afro Celt Sound System
Barbican, London
EVER since founding member Simon Emmerson's innovative idea in the early 1990s to fuse both traditional West African and Irish music with electronica, Afro Celt Sound System has proven to be an inimitable force.
Always a colourful affair on stage, the group's core of guitarist Emmerson, Guinean kora and balafon player N’Faly Kouyate and Dhol drummer Johnny Kalsi — formerly of Transglobal Underground — are joined by a host of others representing global cultures for this gig.
Indeed, as Koyate lists all the many languages the group collectively speak, he muses that, if this collaboration of cultures were mirrored by states, the world's problems would be solved overnight.
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