Tuareg nomads and cowboy drifters. Camel trains and mustang horses. The timeless horizon of the endless Sahara and the wild frontier of the Old West-and when the day is done, guitars around the campfire, singing songs of loss and longing and 'home on the range'.Several thousand miles of ocean may divide the desert blues of Tinariwen and the authentic country music of rural America butthe links are as palpable as they are romantic.
On Amatssou, their ninth studio album, Tinariwen set out to explore these shared sensibilities as banjos, fiddles and pedalsteel mix seamlessly with the Tuareg band's trademark snaking guitar lines and hypnotic grooves.
~~~~~~~~~
Tinariwen is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. The group first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Their popularity rose internationally with the release of the critically acclaimed Aman Iman in 2007. NPR calls the group "music's true rebels," AllMusic deems the group's music "a grassroots voice of rebellion," and Slate calls the group "rock 'n' roll rebels whose rebellion, for once, wasn't just metaphorical.
~~~~~~~~~
The best Tinariwen album hasn't been recorded yet. Perhaps it never will be. Because the best Tinariwen music isn't the music they perform in front of microphones. It's the music they play at night around the fire, back in their own country, amongst themselves and at their own pace. Having eaten, and drunk their tea, the men bring out their guitars, chat, remember old songs and let the music come. In those moments, the music can become like the fire, free, magical and impossible to stuff into a box. It rises up like a shower of sparks or a state of grace, without premeditation; the momentary manifestation of a friendship, a community, an environment, a history; the revelatory connection with something that belongs only to them, and goes beyond them. Their discography stretching out over the last 17 years, all the tours and the international recognition have changed nothing: Tinariwen are still a desert band, only certain aspects of which the western music industry can ever hope to capture and present. Tinariwen existed long before any of their albums were recorded, and they still exist quite distinct from their discographic dimension. So, the best Tinariwen album doesn't exist. But it's still worth trying to go and find it.
show less
On Amatssou, their ninth studio album, Tinariwen set out to explore these shared sensibilities as banjos, fiddles and pedalsteel mix seamlessly with the Tuareg band's trademark snaking guitar lines and hypnotic grooves.
~~~~~~~~~
Tinariwen is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. The group first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Their popularity rose internationally with the release of the critically acclaimed Aman Iman in 2007. NPR calls the group "music's true rebels," AllMusic deems the group's music "a grassroots voice of rebellion," and Slate calls the group "rock 'n' roll rebels whose rebellion, for once, wasn't just metaphorical.
~~~~~~~~~
The best Tinariwen album hasn't been recorded yet. Perhaps it never will be. Because the best Tinariwen music isn't the music they perform in front of microphones. It's the music they play at night around the fire, back in their own country, amongst themselves and at their own pace. Having eaten, and drunk their tea, the men bring out their guitars, chat, remember old songs and let the music come. In those moments, the music can become like the fire, free, magical and impossible to stuff into a box. It rises up like a shower of sparks or a state of grace, without premeditation; the momentary manifestation of a friendship, a community, an environment, a history; the revelatory connection with something that belongs only to them, and goes beyond them. Their discography stretching out over the last 17 years, all the tours and the international recognition have changed nothing: Tinariwen are still a desert band, only certain aspects of which the western music industry can ever hope to capture and present. Tinariwen existed long before any of their albums were recorded, and they still exist quite distinct from their discographic dimension. So, the best Tinariwen album doesn't exist. But it's still worth trying to go and find it.
Tuareg nomads and cowboy drifters. Camel trains and mustang horses. The timeless horizon of the endless Sahara and the wild frontier of the Old West-and when the day is done, guitars around the campfire, singing songs of loss and longing and 'home on the range'.Several thousand miles of ocean may divide the desert blues of Tinariwen and the authentic country music of rural America butthe links are as palpable as they are romantic.
On Amatssou, their ninth studio album, Tinariwen set out to explore these shared sensibilities as banjos, fiddles and pedalsteel mix seamlessly with the Tuareg band's trademark snaking guitar lines and hypnotic grooves.
~~~~~~~~~
Tinariwen is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. The group first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Their popularity rose internationally with the release of the critically acclaimed Aman Iman in 2007. NPR calls the group "music's true rebels," AllMusic deems the group's music "a grassroots voice of rebellion," and Slate calls the group "rock 'n' roll rebels whose rebellion, for once, wasn't just metaphorical.
~~~~~~~~~
The best Tinariwen album hasn't been recorded yet. Perhaps it never will be. Because the best Tinariwen music isn't the music they perform in front of microphones. It's the music they play at night around the fire, back in their own country, amongst themselves and at their own pace. Having eaten, and drunk their tea, the men bring out their guitars, chat, remember old songs and let the music come. In those moments, the music can become like the fire, free, magical and impossible to stuff into a box. It rises up like a shower of sparks or a state of grace, without premeditation; the momentary manifestation of a friendship, a community, an environment, a history; the revelatory connection with something that belongs only to them, and goes beyond them. Their discography stretching out over the last 17 years, all the tours and the international recognition have changed nothing: Tinariwen are still a desert band, only certain aspects of which the western music industry can ever hope to capture and present. Tinariwen existed long before any of their albums were recorded, and they still exist quite distinct from their discographic dimension. So, the best Tinariwen album doesn't exist. But it's still worth trying to go and find it.
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On Amatssou, their ninth studio album, Tinariwen set out to explore these shared sensibilities as banjos, fiddles and pedalsteel mix seamlessly with the Tuareg band's trademark snaking guitar lines and hypnotic grooves.
~~~~~~~~~
Tinariwen is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. The group first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Their popularity rose internationally with the release of the critically acclaimed Aman Iman in 2007. NPR calls the group "music's true rebels," AllMusic deems the group's music "a grassroots voice of rebellion," and Slate calls the group "rock 'n' roll rebels whose rebellion, for once, wasn't just metaphorical.
~~~~~~~~~
The best Tinariwen album hasn't been recorded yet. Perhaps it never will be. Because the best Tinariwen music isn't the music they perform in front of microphones. It's the music they play at night around the fire, back in their own country, amongst themselves and at their own pace. Having eaten, and drunk their tea, the men bring out their guitars, chat, remember old songs and let the music come. In those moments, the music can become like the fire, free, magical and impossible to stuff into a box. It rises up like a shower of sparks or a state of grace, without premeditation; the momentary manifestation of a friendship, a community, an environment, a history; the revelatory connection with something that belongs only to them, and goes beyond them. Their discography stretching out over the last 17 years, all the tours and the international recognition have changed nothing: Tinariwen are still a desert band, only certain aspects of which the western music industry can ever hope to capture and present. Tinariwen existed long before any of their albums were recorded, and they still exist quite distinct from their discographic dimension. So, the best Tinariwen album doesn't exist. But it's still worth trying to go and find it.
show less
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