TITLE: Kidal
LABEL: Glitterbeat
Tamikrest (“alliance” in the Tamasheq language) is the standard-bearing band of desert blues for assouf music’s second generation. Founded in Kidal, Mali in 2006, they grew up on the sounds of desert blues pioneers Tinariwen. Assouf can seem like a constricting formula: pentatonic scales on guitar, loping rhythms on hand percussion, searching lyrics about the cause of the Kel Tamasheq (you might know them as Touregs), the Saharan nomads who seem fated to be people without a country. American blues, old-time music, iambic pentameter: they’re just as constricting; the art is in how you use (and occasionally stretch) the rules. Right now, no band uses assouf’s rules in a more interesting way than Tamikrest. Their classic formula is to turn it into tuneful rock ‘n’ roll with a steady drum-kit backbeat, catchy hooks and call-and-response choruses – 10 is a great example, 2 is a darker variant. On this, their fifth album, they succeed with a variety of approaches: 1 could be off a Tinariwen album; 3 is a slow, deep blues with twisting guitar lines a la Mark Knopfler; and 5 is deeply psychedelic in the manner of early Pink Floyd. A mature work by young masters of their craft.
TOP TRACKS: 1 2 3 5 10
ALSO RECOMMENDED: 4 6 7 8 9 11
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