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CD Review
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Guardian Unlimited Arts, CD Review >>
By: Robin Denselow
Great music doesn't have to be expensive. Squeezed together in a rented apartment in the Malian capital of Bamako were an English producer, an engineer, and Tinariwen, the former nomads and refugees who have become the best-known musical export from the Sahara desert. They looked more like a commune or an extended family than a conventional band. They were rehearsing Matadjem Yinmexan (Why All This Hate Between You?) and when heard in that hot little room it sounded like a classic, with its sturdy, stuttering guitar lines, melodic chanting vocal and female chorus. The song is included on this album, which they started recording the following day.
This is an important time for Tinariwen. They have signed to a label best-known for rock acts such as Travis or Paul Weller, and there's clearly the hope that the band will now extend their appeal from African music fans to a wider audience. What's special about Tinariwen's latest desert blues is the way that their laid-back, rhythmic but gloriously tight and rousing songs are now mixed with spoken passages or more thoughtful, reflective pieces such as the semi-acoustic Nak Assarhagh. Producer Justin Adams (best-known these days as Robert Plant's guitarist) has wisely kept the band sounding as live, and exhilarating, as they were in that Bamako rehearsal room. 02/02/07 >> go there
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