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TRANCELIKE SOUNDS EVOKE DESERT REBELLION
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Columbus Dispatch, TRANCELIKE SOUNDS EVOKE DESERT REBELLION >>
TRANCELIKE SOUNDS EVOKE DESERT REBELLION
Published: Saturday, October 30, 2004
By Jory Farr
Turbaned and dressed in long flowing robes, the musicians of Tinariwen took the Mershon Auditorium stage Thursday night looking like sub-Saharan, nomadic warriors.
And that's fitting because members of this Mali band fought as soldiers in a civil war that tore their African country apart during two decades.
These days, no one in Tinariwen wields a rifle or hides in the mountains. But they still sing songs of resistance and rebellion that first came together when they met in a Libyan army camp.
Using electric guitars, Tinariwen makes music that is the desert equivalent of the blues. Make that the deep blues. For the sound the band gets with its whirring guitars and soaring, swirling vocals has
elements of Delta blues, American folk and acid rock, all stitched together with mystical chants.
Think of what would happen if bluesman John Lee Hooker were a Sufi, and you have an idea of what this music is about. The sound isn't merely hypnotic; it's one prolonged, spiraling trance.
The trance lasted an hour and a half Thursday night, as the group performed material from its two compact discs.
Anchored by a heavy, droning bass and the cracking thunder of the djembe, the band opened with Assoul , a haunting chant with flute and ululating vocals. From there the music took off into realms that
conjured the harshness of the desert that dominates parts of Mali.
Amassakou'N'Tenere, with its pulsing guitar riffs over thickly syncopated drumming, conjured up life in the desert. And Chet Boghassa was a tribute to the women who helped the soldiers in the mountains
during the long war. Some songs moved out to stamping, galloping rhythms; others were essentially chants backed by droning guitars and clapping hands.
But like all other world-music bands, Tinariwen has been influenced by hip-hop. And one heard that influence in Arawan, a rap on all the difficulties of life in that region of Mali.
Something must be in the country' s water, because so many brilliant musicians have come from Mali. Ali Farka Toure, Rokia Traore and Oumou Sangare, to name a few, all have harnessed the rhythms of their native country. What Tinariwen adds to the mix, though, is a subtle approach that' s traditional and revolutionary.
The approach is traditional in the sense that the band sings about the typical problems and joys of desert life. It's revolutionary in the way Tinariwen pieces together the music, using an eclectic mix of East and
West.
One hears echoes of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon in the band's songs. But there are also elements of Moroccan and Algerian music. The music was forged in exile and was political from the
beginning. The band's best songs are shouts for freedom and anthems for a new consciousness.
10/30/04
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