With I Speak Fula, the Malian Ngoni lute player Bassekou Kouyate has put together a confident and precise collection of songs that ought to be heard by both those familiar and unfamiliar with the West African sound. This is evangelical music at its best, as Kouyate, backed by his band Ngoni Ba, do well in bringing traditional West African motifs and typical western sounds into conversation with one another, such that his music is ripe for the masses. The songs found throughout the record are equal parts African Highlife and American dessert blues, resulting in a fascinating fusion of sound that avoids doing violence to the genres at play. Kouyate clearly has the utmost respect for the genres he’s working with, and the performances throughout the record excel as a result. Highlights would include the trance-like “Jamana Be Diya” featuring Kasse Mady and Toumani Diabete and the wah-wah driven “Musow,” which at moments sounds like straight-up rock and roll. Considering the increased interest in the “African sound” among recent Western rock and pop bands (Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors et al.). I Speak Fula proves to be both a beautiful and timely record, tapping into the Western musical conscious, simply by paying due tribute to the traditional forms of West Africa. (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com) Jeff Friesen