May 14, 2010

Tinariwen//Imidiwan Afrik Temdam

Hey guys. No locals today. I just couldn't make it work. Of course, you can always send me some suggestions, if you have some. All I have to do is be able to vaguely relate it to someone I know personally and it counts, in my book.

I hope instead you will accept this awesome and decidedly NOT LOCAL track from this band of nomadic Tuareg band called Tinariwen. They make music that is mystical, beautiful and should add some spice to your weekend.

The band has an incredible story. Here's some of it:

Tinariwen was founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who at age 4 witnessed the execution of his father (a Tuareg rebel) during a 1963 uprising in Mali. As a child he saw a western film in which a cowboy played a guitar. Ag Alhabib built his own guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. He started to play old Tuareg and modern Arabic pop tunes.

...The Tinariwen sound is primarily guitar-driven in the style known as assouf among the Tuareg people. The style is possibly a distant relative of blues music via West African music, though the members Tinariwen claim to have never heard actual American blues music until they began to travel internationally in 2001.


The group is a collective, namely because of the culture's nomadic nature.



Imidiwan Afrik Temdam.mp3

This song is from the groups most recent album, Imidiwan: Companions. You can get it here.

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