Tinariwen come from the desert of Northeastern Mali, and have just released their new album Aman Iman, which translates as ‘Water is Life’ in the Tamashek language in which the majority of their songs are written. Tinariwen are in fact a Touareg band who have in the past been members of the armed resistance against the Mali government and who have a number of rebel songs as part of their repertoire. Although the band have been together since the 1980s, they have recently been discovered by parts of the music press in the UK, leading to my own recent discovery of their music, and their history is no doubt a factor in their immediate appeal.
However what you realise as soon as you listen to Tinariwen is that interesting as their history and image is, like all great bands the music is the most important thing. Tinariwen make a fascinating blend of blues rock and traditional Toureg music that has huge crossover appeal. Whereas many traditional African bands probably have a relatively small potential audience in Europe and the US, you definitely do not have to be a dedicated “world music” fan to appreciate Tinariwen. Their style of music is called “Assouf” which is a word that is apparently hard to translate into English but refers to the feeling induced by the emptiness and loneliness of the uninhabited spaces of the desert. This is a feeling that definitely comes across in their music, but it posesses a definite warmth and humanity as well, which comes across even more strongly live.
The band themselves look just as distinctive in person as they do in the publicity photographs. Lead singer and guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib has a detached, rock star persona, appearing with a massive leather coat and trademark hairstyle, and remaining unsmiling throughout the performance. His undeniably cool image contrasts with the equally cool but more traditional Touareg clothes worn by the rest of the 8-strong band, consisting of drummer Said Ag Ayad, bass guitarist Eyadou Ag Leche, female vocalist Mina Wallet Oumar, acoustic guitarist and vocalist Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Hassan Ag Touhami, Abdallah Ag Lamida and Elaga Ag Hamid, all of whom are vocalists and electric guitarists.
The all-seated nature of the almost 2000-capacity Barbican Hall does tend to reduce the freedom of the audience to respond to the performance, and at first the audience seemed to me at least to be frustratingly unresponsive given the brilliance of the music. From the opening solo from Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, this was captivating. The band played a number of songs from their new album “Aman Iman”, together with quite a few others that I was unfamiliar with (including a song featuring an impressive rap in French which yet again showed the band’s musical range). Without exception, every song was excellent and performed brilliantly well. Their music seamlessly blends traditional and modern styles, electric and acoustic together with soaring vocals and very skilled djembe drumming. The basslines of some of the tracks have a real rock drive, and when combined with the lyrical singing and guitar styles (with both a feel of blues and of traditional music) this creates something fresh and instantly involving. The music is extremely melodic and evocative, streamlined without being too sparse and recalling wide open spaces of the desert. It is particularly impressive that the music is this enjoyable without understanding the lyrics, as in their home region of Adar des Iforas the band are famous as much for the poetry of the words as for the music. Fortunately translations are available in the sleeve notes of Aman Iman, and these give a fascinating insight into the concerns of the band, who sing about real issues affecting the Touareg, in particular exile and their troubled history, but are always inspired by the landscape of the desert. The band’s limited English reduced the amount they could say to the audience between songs, but they made an effort to connect with the audience (“Welcome to the desert”) and it was obvious they were enjoying themselves. By the end of the gig the hall had a definite party atmosphere, having much more in common with a rock concert. During the encore, a number of audience members were amusingly dragged onto the stage to dance with the band! As one of the band said, “I am happy tonight”.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Reviews by Northcape. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.