Tinariwen
Amadjar
Impeccable ninth album from Malian Tuareg rockers. The idea of overdubbing contributions from Western admirers has been a controversial one in African music ever since Brian Jones added stereo phasing and echo effects to live recordings of the Master Musicians Of Jojouka.
Amadjar’s most ear-catching guest appearances are not in fact the tasteful selection of fiddle, guitar and mandolin cameos respectfully patched-in
in absentia by a grizzled Bad Seed, a Sunn O))) mainstay and Willie Nelson’s son, but rather the trio of collaborations with Mauritanian griotte Noura Mint Seymali and her guitarist husband Jeiche Ould Chigali, which Tinariwen travelled for almost two weeks to Nouakchott to record in a desert camp. Tinariwen’s familiar blue note electric guitar glimmer – which is to 75 Dollar Bill as Muddy Waters was to The Rolling Stones – has never sounded better than it does with those two on board, and this whole album is a desert rock classic.