Don’t read another word, just play this:
That video is pretty much all you need, Tinariwen’s leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib being driven around the Joshua Tree National Park, the expansive, rocky scenery mirroring the music and the clever cuts to flames in line with the rhythm. It really is a great understated video and pretty much gives you what you need to grasp Tinariwen’s 2014 LP Emmaar in one fell swoop. It’s only fair to start by telling you that I love this band unreservedly and you’ll get absolutely no objectivity from here on in.
The back story of Emmaar is a sad one. Due to the Islamic fundamentalist insurgency in Mali Tinariwen were forced to record their last LP Tassili in Algeria and were forced to record far further afield this time, again for reasons of safety, the Joshua Tree National Park, no less. For a band as routed and as invested in their homeland and culture as Tinariwen the results are palpable, Emmaar is by and large a far more stately, sombre and subdued set of songs from them. Themes of homesickness, companionship and loss are almost omnipresent in the Touareg music I’ve heard, inevitably so I’d imagine in a traditionally nomadic culture, themes which are given an added poignancy by the political situation in Mali. There is even a soppy song or two about girls, because Tinariwen = Human.
Tinariwen respond to their circumstances, not with all guitars blazing this time, but with a stately dignity that demands your respect from the get go on ‘Toumast Tincha’. Much as I love his stuff the spoken word intro by Saul Williams is entirely superfluous, I’d prefer just to hear the guitars shimmer into view like the early rays of sun rising free over a desert escarpment in the morning; Emmaar translates as ‘the heat on the breeze’. Williams is not the only guest on the opening track RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer adds his strings and Fats Kaplin adds some very discreet pedal steel. There is some rather great low-key blazing guitar towards the end of the ‘Toumast Tincha’, which translates as ‘the people have been sold out’; some sentiments are, sadly, universal.
Over 14 tracks* we are treated to a lot of stylistic variations on the band’s sound but, as always, the overarching sound is the desert. I love the frenetic, percussive ‘Chaghaybou’ the fastest track on offer here, the forceful, almost rapped vocals and slashing guitar take me somewhere very special indeed. It contrasts brilliantly with the likes of ‘Timadrit In Sahara’ and ‘Imidwan Ahi Sigdim’ which wend a timeless tireless groove across the aural horizon, evoking a wonderful sense of space and place. I am also a sucker for the gorgeous melancholy of ‘Sendad Eghalen’ a call to fellow countrymen to beat their ‘constant lethargy’ which features some wonderfully understated pedal steel from Mr Kaplin; who also lights up ‘Imdiwanin Ahi Tifhamam’ with his fiddle turning it into a Sub-Saharan hoedown.
But as always with Tinariwen the guitar is king and I really think there are few finer, moodier players out there than the band leader, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib. Like almost all of the musicians I end up venerating I think his great strength, once you take great tone and sheer dexterity for granted, is the fact that he knows when to play and when not to – those spaces are every bit as important as the notes he plays; just check out the live-ish version of ‘Islegh Taghram Tifhamam’ above for some perfectly sparse playing.
Interestingly one of the very best tracks on Emmaar is a bonus track, ‘Adounia Ti Chidjret’, which with my fluent Tamashek I’d translate as ‘The World is Vast’, which is a real smouldering desert rocker with great vocals and, as always, perfect guitar.
Okay, okay, you get the picture I’m sure, I love this sound and I love this band. More to the point though I would say that I dislike it when bands get pegged as ‘world music’ because they don’t come from a western nation and/or sing in a tongue other than English, it’s a bit of a reductive and increasingly irrelevant label these clicky days. Tinariwen’s sound is itself an amalgam of influences, both traditional and decidedly not-so traditional, they make exciting, contemporary music informed by their particular culture and those they partake in around the world. Music is music, is music.
And on that note of profundity I will go from you, like the heat on the breeze.
693 Down.
*3 bonus ones on the vinyl edition. Did I tell you how much I love Tinariwen yet?
I’m digging this. Keep exposing CB to it. He needs to get off the farm once in while and expand his listening. This is some good stuff.
It’s a real beauty of an album. It just sounds like the landscape that it was created in.
Good quote. Perfect!
Ok, I give up. I cannot stand against your three-and-a-half-year barrage anymore. I will be buying some Tinariwen, but not until you tell me which one to start with. As you ponder your response, please consider my blues-based, rock guitar listening proclivities while also including in your ponderations the fact that I have been known to dig mournful desert grooving (with an emphasis on grooving). Finally, factor in that I joyously road-tripped though Joshua Tree National Park in 2013. I await your instruction (and please limit the gloating if you’d be so kind).
P.S. Do not think it is lost on me that Northern Mali is only just over there to the left and a little down from me. What exactly is it that you are up to, Sir?
(Gloats. Gives minions signal to cease barrage)
Welcome friend. It may sound like a perverse choice but I’d go for a live LP called ‘The Festival in the Desert’, which only has one (totally incredible) Tinariwen track on it, but loads of other great stuff – including one R.Plant Esq. who used to be in a band.
If that moves you then I’d move for Aman Iman, it’s their blurriest. They are all great so far though.
(Mini gloat)
How did you get on with it?
Ok, Mr. Pushy, geez… so, I listened to The Festival in the Desert on the Spotify immediately after your above harangue but must admit to have not been greatly moved. Aman Iman however has entered my home in physical form and gets regular spins. I listened on the way in to work today and then kept it going here in the office, in fact. “Cler Achel” is my favorite song to date, followed closely by “Assouf.” It is the guitar that most shapes my dunes, but I much love the percussion/chant grooves also.
Great post, Joe – another that I love, so, y’know, I reckon you cover thinks perfectly here (though I still stopped to listen. Twice!)
Incredible stuff and their sound isn’t lost in the move or by their guests.
Thanks a lot. I’m desperate to see them play live too, I have missed them so many times over the years as well. They’re playing in Manchester soon, but on a really awkward day for me.
Argh! That’s a kick in the balls. I’ve had that experience with a couple of my favourites – just hasn’t panned out.
I have certain bands that I just can never get to see, like the Wildhearts.
Jings! The Wildhearts!
Double jings!
A couple confessions Joe:
1) I deliberately disobeyed the first part of the opening instructions
2) Completely non-objective reviews are my favourite kind!
Re. #1 Damn you!
Like Mike, I’m guilty of carrying on reading. The music provided the perfect background for what your wrote or was that your plan all along? I can easily see myself mellowing out to this.
So pleased you liked it, they just have such a beautiful, evocative sound I think.
Nice track – I’ve driven round that place, but with a Chili Pepper’s as my soundtrack. That would have done me though. Great stuff. Gonna get it for my drive around the Scottish Highlands!
Wow – not sure about Scotland though, surely you need something a bit more soggy sounding? in my blooming experience anyway!
Any suggestions? Midge Urebitingme?
Orange Sodding Juice? Franz Sodding Ferdinand? Fish out-of-sodding Marillion?
I know you’ve been with this band for quite a while. Is this 2014 outing the most recent? Given the rather sad context of intolerance and forced nomadism, one wonders…
Like Mike’s comment (above). When it comes down to it, everything is world music, innit?
Apart from a (coughs) live LP last year and an acoustic EP (arrived today) from the same sessions, it is the most recent.
Mali just consistently produces such great music, it astounds me.
I think Mike was bang on there too about world music. I was going to say something very witty about it, but my brain stopped working a good hour or two ago. True story.
This act is on my list for Taranna this weekend. Them and that Songhoy Blues thingy. And the Festival in the Desert. And maybe some more Youssou N’Dour.
You can’t go wrong with any of ’em. Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, sort of in the untrue sense of that assertion.
OK I played it. And then I ignored you. I read it. Hah. Some writer you are! Can’t even get people to not read their stuff.
My god what a track!
As for the world music thing, I get it. I’m sure an artist from Canada would hate to see themselves under “world music” in England! It’s a handy tag so dumb people could find stuff in record stores. Trust me I know from experience.
I’m so glad you saw through my elaborate double bluff and carried on reading my wisdom.
I’m double glad you enjoyed it so much, I’m in love with that track – it’s a stunning sound. Klinghoffer and Flea have played with them live a couple of times too.
Yeah, you’re right – I hadn’t factored dumb people into my thinking!
But I am so glad you liked this one.
Spam!