Nomadic? No Problem.

Tinariwen is one of those bands that took me by surprise this year. Based solely on prior releases, this is a band that I never should have noticed, which makes sense because I never did (their back catalog probably deserves a listen at some point, but so far I haven’t delved into their past). At the same time, it makes complete sense that they would be all over my radar screen with Tassili. First off, they signed with the greatest record label in the world, ANTI-, for this album. It takes only a brief review of these blog posts to find that ANTI- has strong influence and heavy representation on these reviewers’ musical tastes. I have come to the point where I nearly trust them completely and expect just about anything they put out to have significant merit. Then, beyond the label and it’s outstanding production and marketing, add the fact that they hand-picked guest stars who showed up on elsewhere on my best-of-the-year list (including Tunde and Kyp, but also – spoiler alert – Nels Cline) and it seems like a can’t miss. The only remaining problem, one that initially made me put them off for a week or two before purchasing, was that it was largely instrumental, middle eastern “world music”. My expectation was droning, repetitive, sitar heavy meanderings. I’m glad I got over these preconceived notions and decided to take a chance because I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The beautiful and endearing thing about Tinariwen’s sound is that it has a distinct African and eastern sound (the band members belong to a nomadic tribe that roams Saharan Africa), but it has a strong tendency toward delta blues of all things. This weird but satisfying fusion is what makes their music instantly catchy, yet keeps it from becoming stale and repetitive. From the very first listen I was hooked and found the songs to have a hypnotic quality, never seeming over-long. And what makes this album as impressive as anything is that they’re able to produce this sound with nothing but acoustic guitar, hand drums, clapping and voices. Highlights include all songs on which the TVOTR guys provide vocals (what a great venue for these masters of falsetto to offer their talents), especially Asuf D Alwa and Walla Illa. Other great tracks are Imidiwan Me Tenem, featuring Cline’s characteristic frenetic guitar, and Ya Messinagh with simmering, sinister background sax and horns provided by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

In the end, I love the east meets west fusion they incorporate to create such an ingratiating sound. I’d love to see more of this in years to come, bringing music from around the world to people like myself who tend to lean, sometimes ignorantly, toward a more ethnocentric sound. Perhaps this will also motivate me to seek out new sounds beyond my own country and my usual paradigm.

The next entry on this retrospective comes from a band I was ready to write off just two years ago. Another of my personal all time favorites, I’m happy to say they’ve redeemed themselves with a vengeance and slide in at number seven.