Tinariwen

There are things that are beautiful with a beauty you don't understand, a beauty that translates itself in your heart, not your head. Tinariwen's first album penetrated the walls of language; their fourth does, too. Recorded in the desolate gorges of the Sahara, the album returns the band to its land, the source of its inspiration, and with that, the aridity of its music -- its pensive depths, its meditativeness -- comes to life again, an organic truth rather than a recreation hashed out in European studios. The last two albums were good; Imidiwan is great.

As the latest by this Tuareg blues tribe shows, desert nomads gotta move. Having worked in
studios, they return to their home village in northern Mali, where they jammed and
recorded via generator and starlight. There's a campfire vibe, though given the heat put
out by even the acoustic jams, bonfire is more like it. The electric guitars flash like
lightning, the looping melodies and Tamashek raps hypnotize. The documentary... More >