|
|
 |
CD Review
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Rolling Stone, CD Review >>
Gangstas rap about the warrior trials of thug life, but southern-Sahara rock & roll soldiers Tinariwen - an electrifying band of Taureg tribesmen and -women from the white, open spaces of northern Mali - truly know battle. Members of the group fought in a civil war that wracked Mali in the 1980s and 1990s; singer-guitarist Ibrihim Ag Alhabib has nineteen bullet wounds as souvenirs (that's ten more than 50 Cent). In those years, Tinariwen also forged a more lasting weapon: a freedom rock of ancient desert song and African blues fundamentals, played on electric guitars with the bite and brigand spirit of the '68 Rolling Stones. On Ammasakoul, their second worldwide release, Tinariwen capture the poetry and hardships of nomadic life and exile in hypnotic, modal vocals and a tangle of sidewinding riffs that sound like a mirage come true: Keith Richards, Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure picking side by side under an unforgiving sun. 10/14/04
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
