Ni Kanu (1995)

"Kante Manfila was one of the founding members of Les Ambassadeurs du Motel Mali along with Salif Keita, cowriting many of the hits from the band. Now on his own, Manfila released his fourth solo album in 1995, Ni Kanu (Love). The songs advise in the context of every social topic possible in the range of the album: arranged marriages, materialism, lust for power, piety, truth, war, righteousness. The songs at times hold an almost Salif Keita-like sound to them in the vocals, and at times hold an almost Bruce Springsteen-like sound to them in the synthesizer work. The works are almost surreal in the quality of the production to meld electronic instrumentation with acoustic, along with the dreamy vocals and occasional guitar work that ranges almost to soukous (but only almost). For those that can bring themselves to enjoy Salif Keita's work, but perhaps find it a bit soft, or enjoy Youssou N'Dour's work, but perhaps find it a bit fast, Kante Manfila can probably fit the bill easily." (Allmusic).|