|
|
 |
Concert Preview
|
| Click Here to go back. |
LA Weekly, Concert Preview >>
The ever-evolving trans-generational Saharan musicians Tinariwen conjure a distinctively mesmerizing style of music that’s just as soulful and timeless as the blues, with which it shares a certain simpatico, inexorable heartbeat groove. But whereas most modern blues songs are so predictable that you can hear every lick and lyrical lament coming from a mile away, Tinariwen’s music is constantly surprising, with whorls of intricately gnarled/gnarly guitars spun ’round dreamy voices chanting restless, surreal poetry. “The revolution is a long thread/Easily twisted, hard to stretch/I patch up the desert, the great desert,” sings Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, the band’s patriarch and one of several singer-guitarists, on Tinariwen’s fourth album, Imidiwan (World Village). The inexplicably wrought, almost backwards-sounding riffs by Ibrahim, Elaga Ag Hamid, Le Lion, Diara, Intidao and others would be trippy enough, but they become even more iconic and emotionally resonant when blended with incantational stories about life in the desert, romance, family and the literal fight for freedom by the Kel Tamashek nomads (sometimes referred to as the Tuareg). “It’s often said that every Tuareg from Tamanrasset to Niamey and from Timbuktu to Ghat is a member of Tinariwen, so widely are their songs known and treasured,” explains the band’s manager, Andy Morgan. “They are more of a social movement than a desert rock ’n’ roll band.” Hear, hear. 02/15/10 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
