Anti- Records release the important and powerful new album by the
accled "Touareg" band Tinariwen entitled Tassili. The
soundtrack of the Touareg revolution in Saharan North Africa was
created by electric guitars. Plaintive rhythms created a unique
desert blues whose lyrics raged against world indifference and
evoked a longing for disappearing freedoms. On their enthralling
new album entitled Tassili, the renowned band Tinariwen have set
down their electric guitars and returned to the very essence of
their art. Recorded in a protected region of the South-Eastern
Algerian desert, the group returned to the roots of their music,
with only acoustic guitars and unamplified percussion. During
, the band was joined by Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone
of the band TV on the Radio. Later on, guitarist Nels Cline
(Wilco) and the horns of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band contributed
to create an album that reaches deep into the essence of
Tinariwen's sound while simultaneously opening itself to the
surrounding world.
BBC Review
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It's been a good year for African desert rock. In
April, young Tuareg rs Tamikrest released their second (and
best) album, Toumastin, and now the heavyweight champs Tinariwen
are back to deliver a TKO in the form of Tissali, their fifth
long-player. The band formed from members of the Sub-Saharan
diaspora stranded in a Libyan refugee camp in 1979, returning
home after a ceasefire between the Malian government and rebel
forces was agreed in the 1990s. But it has really been during the
last decade that the band have started to gain an international
following thanks to certain progressive Western festivals and a
dramatic shift in perceptions of what so-called 'world' music
means: there has been a general movement of emphasis away from
the authentic and worthy to the more modern and populist.
While what they play is demonstrably Tuareg assouf music, their
development dislocated from home in refugee camps opened them up
to non-Malian influences, especially from Algeria and Egypt. But
perhaps most importantly they got to hear bootlegged cassettes of
popular Western rock acts such as Santana, Led Zeppelin, Dylan
and Hendrix. Their music is often referred to as 'desert blues'
which is misleading as the band were unaware of this music until
visiting America in the last decade, despite the clear influence
of heavy electrified RnB. This is worth mentioning as it's good
not to think of Tinariwen as having a 'pure' or 'authentic'
sound.
In fact some may be up in arms at the fact that this album
features guest spots from Nels Cline of Wilco, Tunde Adebimpe and
Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band of
New Orleans, but really all Tinariwen are doing is completing a
circle of sorts. Such people should be reassured, that if
anything, this album sounds more traditional than 2009's
Imidiwan: Companions, because alongside new numbers there are old
compositions such as the lovelorn Iswegh Attay and the sumptuous
and languid Walla Illa. The only track to sound even remotely
different to what we have come to expect and love from them is
Tenere Taqqim Tossam, simply because of Tunde's lush vocals. It's
just that, this time, the fact that he is vocally a dead ringer
for world music devotee Peter Gabriel gains his presence an extra
layer of irony.
--John Doran
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