The band from Mali creates an analogue oasis for their indigo blue ethno-blues.
For 20 years, Tamikrest has stood for a desert blues sound that doesn’t have much in common with American desert rock other than the fascination for psychedelic, feverish, flowing structures. The fact that the group from Mali, which fuses Tuareg traditions with Western sounds (and was able to engage The Walkabouts folk rock expert Chris Eckman as a supporter and producer for their first two albums), is now treating itself to its first collaboration in two decades with Tinariwen, the pioneering band of the Sahara sound that was highly revered by Robert Plant, can be seen as a birthday present to themselves.
Tinariwen founding singer and guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib lends the barren “Eillal” his thoughtful narrative voice. Festive round dances and lap steel meditatives are also part of the moving sound journey, which this time began its recording in Haarlem, the Netherlands: It was there that Altin Gün sound engineer Jasper Geluk provided the band’s analog ambitions with authentic vintage equipment.
Correspondingly warm and dynamic, ASSIKEL trickles out of the speakers. If Tarantino were planning more than just one last directing effort, a desert western with a Tamikrest soundtrack would be a suitable scenario. But this wishful thinking probably remains a mirage.
