Just Deserts

It’s cold out, the wind is howling, leaves are falling from the cherry tree in the front garden and the rain is coming in sideways. Let’s head to the desert.

The Rough Guide To Desert Blues was a 2014 purchase, spotted for me by Aaron I seem to recall when I was bemoaning the price of collecting some quality desert blues on vinyl. It was cheap then, it’s cheap now and as an introduction and primer to some of my very favourite music, it’s a sandy no-brainer.

Produced by the makers of the, in my experience, slightly snooty travel guides* The Rough Guide To Desert Blues** this 2010 LP serves us up a fairly no frills banquet, albeit on 180g limited edition vinyl. Interestingly the download offerings serve up an extra 6 tacks and an entire LP by Etran Finatawa.

The sleeve notes by Dan Rosenberg set the scene rather excellently, although I would have liked more detail on the performers. I love the way that Rosenberg points out that the political map of the Saharan nations is not as relevant as the ethnic groups shaping the cultural map of the region.

Within seconds of slipping this album on, I just feel like I am home; which I appreciate must seem like an appalling affectation for someone hailing from a particularly soggy, verdant corner of Wales. There is just something ancient, fulfilling and necessary in the tone and groove found in the desert blues that I just plug right into, a sense of space and a life hard lived that resonates, it always has.

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The success of Tinariwen tends to overshadow a lot of other music from the region, they are the breakout stars, the trailblazers, the standard bearers and the gateway into this music for so many others. So it is fitting that their ‘Tenhert’ is the most striking track here, the guitars rear and bite a little here and the vocal … wow. This is dancing music, joyous happy dancing music, every time you listen to it you simply become a better person. True story.

Elsewhere here the Tinariwen influence runs strong in Terakaft, featuring two former members of the Tuareg legends. Their track here ‘Ténéré Were Tat Zinchegh’ is a wonderful widescreen evocation of the desert^, the two rhythm guitars rolling to great affect over a very deep bass sound, as the vocals sweep us away over the dunes. It’s such an evocative, stirring sound and a beautifully produced song too, rich and warm.

Another favourite of mine is Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba ‘Bambugu Blues’, a softer more contemplative number. There is always something very gentle about this artist and Kouyate’s ngoni playing is absolutely lightning fast amongst a sedate, almost plodding rhythm. It really is balm for the soul.

Elsewhere we have Mariem Hassan ‘the indomitable voice’ and her track ‘Tefla Madlouma’, which is a delightful left turn. The sparse backing does have a recognizable blues element, but the skyscraping vocals of the Sahrawi singer impart a wonderfully different tone, there’s a strident sweetness here and I could very willingly lose myself in the majesty of that voice for months on end.

Tamikrest offer us ‘Aratane N’adagh’, which like a lot of the music I have heard from them has an epic smouldering quality to it, there is a more pronounced rock influence at play here, you can hear it in the stunning atmospherics they employ. This is moody, beautiful and uplifting stuff.

Etran Finatawa from Niger, give us another ingredient with their Wodaabe heritage. The way in which the chanted vocals float across the gently persistent beat as the tune is given all the time it wants to develop, give them a subtly different sound, especially with the occasional almost strident contrast of the female vocal line.

Rough Guide finishes its pilgrimage, as it should, by calling on the grandmaster of Niafunké, Ali Farke Touré. The track ‘Mali Dje’ is a slow burner, it sounds like the refreshing coolness of night, and what’s not to love about hearing one of the greatest guitarists that ever was doing his dignified, restrained thang.

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Seven tracks, seven winners for me on Rough Guide. It is a wonderfully transporting experience listening to it end to end, rarely can the music of a region conjure up that region so thoroughly as desert blues.

Buy this album.

1099 Down.

PS: Because I’m very partial to an indomitable voice:

*the tone of which tends to read, place X was infinitely better when it was merely a humble fishing village known only to intelligent morally superior backpackers such as myself 30 years ago, now the hoi pollloi pig fuckers such as yourself and your overweight nylon-clad children have discovered it, it is utterly and irrevocably ruined and may as well change its name to InfraDigville-On-Sea. True story.

**or Rough Guide as it will henceforth be known in order to save my precious, oh so precious, precious, precious time.

^ Ténéré is the Tuareg word for desert.