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CD Review
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Absolute Sound, CD Review >>
TINARIWEN: AMAN IMAN
(WATER IS LIFE).
The fact that this, Tinariwen's third album, boasts more detailed notes, credits, and lyrics than 2004's breakthrough Amassakoul hardly dispels the sense of mystery around the astounding guitar-voice-and-percussion band from the southern Saharan region that encompasses parts of Mali, Algeria, and Libya.
Tinariwen's haunting crossroads music is as grave and ultimately unfathomable as Robert Johnson's Delta blues and Jimi Hendrix's psychedelic rock, even when the grooves call for dancing.
Sometime-participant Justin Adams' production adds no gloss to the narrowly and deeply staged sonics. The acoustic guitar showcases are nuanced and intimate; the band tracks push bright, morphing electric guitar riffs to the fore wMe hand drums, traps, handclaps, and high vocal chants and ululations (think The Battk of Alters) sometimes sound like they're coming from the back of a classroom—or the shadows beyond a desert campfire.
A few tunes on this absorbing disc drone starkiy like John Hooker or Ali Farka Tovire at their most minimalist; others bristle like a cross between Canned Heat and a Toumani Diabate big band; at least one, "Assouf," recalls Cream (a la 'Tolitician") thanks to Eyadou AgLeche's melodic bass and Ibrahim Ag Alhabib's psychedelic wah-wah lead. DR Further Listening: Tinariwen: The Radio Tisdas Sessions; Ali Farka Toure: Radio Mali.
07/01/07
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