Album: Daby Toure & Skip Mcdonald, Call My Name (Real World)

Despite their age difference, Daby Touré and Skip McDonald share the experience of self-imposed exile, the Mauritanian guitarist now part of the Parisian African music scene, while McDonald long ago left Ohio for London to become a staple of the Tackhead/Little Axe/African Head Charge/On-U Sound nexus.

Not the least of their shared traits is an interest in musical hybridisation. Call My Name's six songs twist the two guitarists' parts together like lianas, braiding their individual lines into strong, sturdy ropes of riffs. On "Riddem", their infectious interplay creates a rolling, cyclical groove peppered by Keith LeBlanc's percussion, while "Past Time" features cascading arpeggios overlaid with tendrils of lead guitar, layer upon layer, in a miasmic swirl of sound. "Will You Call My Name?" rides a light but laboured reggae groove, and "Time Has Come" strays into cabaret-jazz territory. The two principals' voices combine well throughout, Touré's high, clear tones floating occasionally into falsetto, anchored by McDonald's gruffer baritone; but the alliance is let down by some criminally lazy lyric-writing, both men slipping too readily into cliché.

Pick of the album:'Past Time', 'Riddem', 'Time Has Come', 'Lost Voices'