Tinariwen tame the days raging tempest with Desert Storm melodic Eastern drone music and its transformative energy.
The band is a loose collective of Tuareg musicians who formed into a recognisable entity around the end of the Seventies. Tuaregs being a distinct ethnic group amongst the ancient Berbers.
Traditionally nomadic pastoralists of the Sahara who travelled a vast area of Northern Africa which included parts of colonially created countries now named Libya, Algeria, Niger, Mali, and Nigeria. They had control in certain eras of the ancient Silk Route.
Just as crucial was their introduction of Islam to North Africa, hence the Arabic influence.
The elements of their distinctive sound are now discernible.
Abdallah Ag Alhouseyni, guitarist and singer and one of two founding members performing tonight explained to the Herald recently. A mix of traditional tribal rhythms, Malian blues, Arabic Pop, and British and American music. He eschews the term Desert Blues, being an easy fashion chic label to be marketed. He prefers nostalgia, which accurately describes its emotional impact.
The lyrics come from ancient Tuareg poetry, immediately linking it with the great Qawwali music from Pakistan, where the inspiration are the old Sufi poets.
They chronicle history, socio-politics, love and devotion, and what you could call the Human Voice in the World of Islam.
That is an album which Brian Eno and David Byrne drew from in their ground-breaking masterpiece album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. One of the founding works of the World Music movement that followed, leading to the institution of WOMAD.
The other founding member playing tonight is Alhassane Ag Touhami. Elaga Ag Hamid and Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, along with Alhouseyni are the four guitarists and singers.
Cheik Ag Tigla bass and Said Ag Ayad hand drums and vocals complete the ensemble.
Azawad (their brand new single) and Kek Alghalm (from 2023 album Amatssou) and immediately you can connect to their melodic intertwined guitars with the solid drone riffs and vocal chants.
It is enchanting and seductive, and most probably subversive as well.
The deep origins of this band’s history saw the founding member (not present tonight), witness his father’s assassination as a Tuareg rebel, when he was four years old. Then followed a life in refugees camps, where he has inspired by American Westerns and guitar-playing cowboys. He fashioned his own primitive guitars.
The band has been cast as outlaws and persecuted in recent times. One band member was abducted for a time by controlling factions.
Talyat starts with forward-rolling acoustic guitar riffs, from which the bass guitar then takes over and leads. You notice him all night after that. The tune sounds like Ali Farka Toure in style.
Chet Boghassa has raga guitars which the bass lifts with a subtle tempo shift and some Rock energy arises.
Tidjit is where I first hear a recognisable Blues line amongst the meshed electric drone guitars. The voices also evoke older Country Americana like the Original Carter Family.
Anemouhagh and the acoustic guitar plays single-note and mini-riff accents like Hubert Sumlin did behind Howlin’ Wolf, over his long career.
How much of the Blues is in Tinariwen’s music?
Legitimately the founding members have said they did not hear any American Blues until they started touring extensively, in the early 2000’s. They have named Zeppelin, Hendrix, Dylan, Santana, and most interestingly Dire Straits as favourites. There are clear Blues influences there, but I believe the deep roots which sound like Blues were already there.
Look for that mystical connection with Charley Patton, rightly labelled as the Originator of the Blues. He was a mixed breed of black, white, and American Indian. He incorporated both a percussive drone and melodic accents in his music. He had a complexity of rhythms and polyrhythms which artists like Robert Johnson set out to decode.
Listen to Mississippi Boll Weevil and Prayer of Death Parts One & Two as a way in.
Chicago Blues guitar introduces Oualahila Ar Tesninam, tribal vocal chants carry it. I have worked out that the bass guitar and the hand drums combine to accentuate the fourth beat (sometimes the third) which adds an essential and distinctive rhythmic component.
Sastanaqqam and the Bo Diddley shave and a haircut two bits rhythm appears for the first and only time. Tribal voices complement perfectly. Lo and behold the bass player takes a Jazz solo!
Wah-wah Funk guitars appear on the later songs like Toumast Tincha and Tamatant Tiley. The overtones are light and agile.
Melodic guitar interplay with its exuberant Ju-Ju music style like King Sunny Ade is all over the songs. Assawt is a stand-out with faster paced vocals which could be Desert Rap.
There is a brief break as we wait for the encore and then a lone guitarist appears for Wartilla. He is playing a Middle Eastern guitar line, and it is like the adapted Lebanese of King of the Surf Guitar Dick Dale.
The solo vocal is a ballad, and he progresses close to Gypsy Jazz or Klezmer. The hand drummer breaks the spell as the rest come back in. An unusual vamp closes the song, echoing the outro to the Rolling Stones Fingerprint File.
While we are there, let’s just name-drop Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. That is the Master Musicians from Morocco. Worthy of your further research, and prescient of the World Music to come.
Tinariwen are an experience in the easy manner that they transcend and captivate with their enthralling music. They embody the politics of human relationships.
Free Palestine! A lone male voice yells out halfway through the show. Embarrassed silence follows. The group do a collective shrug and say Welcome to Sahara!
Rev. Orange Peel