The 2009 release from Tinariwen.

"Although Tinariwen might have been less convincing had they come from Ruislip, it’s important not to let the remarkable biography overshadow the music. A cat’s cradle of wiry funk guitar riffs played over ragged, galloping hand drums, topped by growling, ululating vocals, it seemed to reunite pre-war Delta Blues with its distant African cousins. There were traces of Mali’s hypnotic jeli griots and kora players; there were folk melodies that came from the dislocated, lonesome, nomadic Touareg desert culture from which the band emerged, but when added together it invoked odd but curiously apposite comparisons: Can, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Black Sabbath.

Their last album, 2007’s Water Is Life album, produced in a Bamako studio by Robert Plant’s guitarist Justin Adams, was superficially raw but subtly arranged. The traditional hand drums were multi-tracked and beefed up with handclaps, while the guitars were occasionally treated with wah-wah pedals, fuzzboxes and touches of studio technology. Imidiwan: Companions strips away such modern accoutrements and sees engineer Jean-Paul Romann recording them in situ in a series of remote Malian villages, his portable studio powered by a chugging generator. Everything sounds deliciously grubby and unpolished – the kora-style patterns on “Lulla” seem to tumble out of the guitars in a gloriously haphazard manner; the jittery “Enseqi Ehad Didagh (Lying Down Tonight)”, negotiates the wonderfully disorientating time-signature of 9/16 with a ramshackle charm." - Uncut

Learn more about Outside Music at http://www.outside-music.ca.

Possible influences include: Can, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Black Sabbath

Previews - Imidiwan: Companions

01. Tinariwen - Imidiwan Afrik Tendam -
02. Tinariwen - Lulla -
03. Tinariwen - Tenhert -
04. Tinariwen - Enseqi Ehad Didagh -
05. Tinariwen - Tahult In -
06. Tinariwen - Tamodjerazt Assis -
07. Tinariwen - Intitlayaghen -
08. Tinariwen - Imazeghen n Adagh -
09. Tinariwen - Tenalle Chegret -
10. Tinariwen - Kel Tamashek -
11. Tinariwen - Assuf Ag Assuf -
12. Tinariwen - Chabiba -
13. Tinariwen - Ere Tasfata Adounia -

Hear all samples at once - Listen!

Bonus - Album package comes with complete artwork including thirteen PDF pages.

Album File Size - MP3 Format - 117.83 MB
Album File Size - CD-Quality Lossless FLAC Format - 375.46 MB