Tamikrest – Chatma (Glitterbeat Records)
LP/CD/DL
Out Now
9/10
Tuareg rockers, Tamikrest, release their third
album as a homage to womankind. Louder
Than War’s Paul Scott-Bates give his thoughts.
The Tuareg are nomads from the Sahara regions
of Niger, Libya, Algeria and Mali, and, their wandering lifestyle has clearly
given great influence to the mixed style of Tamikrest. As with many artists from the area, their
homelands are in states of complete and utter disarray and disaster, which
gives way for their music to come forward. They have slowly grown their
reputation throughout Europe, this year in the UK they performed alongside
Bassekou Kouyate and Sidi Toure. Aptly,
‘Tamikrest’ means ‘crossing’.
On this, their third album, they concentrate on
one theme – ‘Chatma’ or ‘sisters’ – and dedicate the collection to the courage
of the Tuareg women in these oppressive times.
Produced by Chris Eckman of Dirtmusic, who themselves have this year
released one of the finest albums you will ever hear, Tamikrest bring you an
album of quite superb quality with songs and melodies that are set to etch
themselves into your mind.
Album opener, ‘Tisnant an Chatma’, features the
vocals of Ousmane Ag Mossa and the amazing vocals of Wonou Walet Sidati, whose
powerful haunting voice gives her an essential part to play and whose addition
makes an already rising album fly high above anything else that is currently out
there.
The style of Tamikrest is intriguing, with
clear African styles fused with those of Hendrix and maybe even Marley, and unsurprisingly,
Dirtmusic. The rock guitar is certainly
a feature and, mixed with more traditional sounds and melodies, makes for some
great listening. There’s a definite stab
at reggae on ‘Itous’ which works quite successfully, and, ‘Djanegh Etoumast,
clearly the album highlight, is a triumph which features Mossa together with a
chorus of voices echoing the words of the lead.
The pace is frenetic and the musicianship superb.
There’s also the slightly strange with
‘Assikal’ which seems to be two tracks in one, part Pink Floyd sounding, it
features spoken word which maybe loses
some of its appeal with the English speaking fraternity, but, does hold a
certain atmospheric quality which keeps it engaging. The almost ambient ‘Timtar’ closes an album
of rock, blues, reggae and psychedelic influenced tracks of great quality. One for your Amazon Wishlist.
9/10
Links
Published on Louder Than War - here
No comments:
Post a Comment