CD Reviews

Tinariwen

Aman Iman | Word Village

By TINARIWEN, AMAN IMAN | April 23, 2007

3.5 Stars

With their third CD, Tinariwen prove themselves the standard bearers of desert folk rock. The weave of twangy, meandering electric guitars is vaguely bluesy but also lyrical and plaintive. When these old Tuareg guys sing in unison, their bone-dry voices punctuated by searing female choruses and ululations, the solidarity of warriors comes to mind, and as the lyrics reveal, they are warriors, survivors of drought, famine, rebellion, and armed conflict in the ’70s, ’80s, and early ’90s, emerging as world-music sensations only as an afterthought. Alhassane Ag Touhami’s “Tamatant Tilay (Death Is Here)” delivers the band’s bracing electric sound with rolling-thunder rhythm, stinging electric guitar, and hypnotic chant vocals in a song that celebrates the Tuareg ability to fight “without fearing death.” Such hard tracks are interspersed with rootsier percussive fare like “Ahimana (Oh my Soul),” a traditional groove with spoken words by the group’s senior poet, Japonais. And there are folksy moments suggestive of a lonely campfire in the desert, like the love song “Ikyadarh Dim (I Look at You).” Guitarist Justin Adams (now in Robert Plant’s band) has produced all three Tinariwen albums in Mali, and the experience shows in the group’s hardest-hitting and most well-rounded and soulful work.