Universally acclaimed Senegalese pop singer Thione Seck has a passionate range that includes a popular African jazz style called mbalax—a conglomeration of tribal and cosmopolitan sounds that capture the fiery sexual heat of the Dakar nightclubs where he rose to popularity—but that's just the tip of the man's incredible range. Songs on Orientation find Seck exploring Indian and Arabic musical styles as a point of departure from his earlier work, though there are still plenty of funky horn lines, soul choruses, and spine-tingling steel drums. There are also mystical vansuri flutes, surging Bollywood strings, spirited bass, and electric guitar locking step with otherworldly sitars, tables, and ouds.
The opener sets the tone with big, moody Bollywood string parts running headlong into Seck's passionate vocalizing, and a chorus of backup singers comes in as South African-style chorale-ish as you can be. Snake-charming horns and hallucinatory violins, funky Middle Eastern percussion and female backup singers bill and coo in a sinuous web around Seck's passionate wails in "Assalo," while the much more African "Mouhahibou" coasts along on thumb pianos, an array of flutes, and a spongy Jew's harp. Songs move along lines of Seck's own devising, as if the album is wandering into a series of late-night clubs and bazaars on a jaunt through the international zones of Dakar.
Senegal's inclusive musical style hungrily absorbs styles, from American jazz, Latin samba, and South African gospel, but the Bollywood and Arabic scales approach is distinctly Seck in pursuit of his passions. It all works brilliantly to create a glowing hybrid right in line with the hybrid of American pop and Bollywood music, like "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire. Orientation lets Seck explore where he will, far east, southeast, northwest, and beyond, and then sing it back out with his joyful, richly expressive, multi-octave range. By the time he starts purring and scatting amidst chirpy flutes and moody strings in high- Bollywood style for the delirious fun of "Manmignoul," you'll be floating around the room in a crazy trance. You may not understand the words, but that hardly matters—the heart of this true artist transcends all barriers and then some, and divine madness is the same in any language.