More or less a month after the release of Tinariwen's latest studio album ('Elwan'), which came out last February on ANTI-Records, here come the Tamikrest again.
'Kidal', recorded in Bamako, Mali, and produced by Mark Mulholland (mixed by David Odlum), is the fourth studio album by the Tinariwen 'little brothers' and was released last March 17 via Glitterbeat. Preceded by the video for 'Wainan Adobat', the album takes its name and is ideally dedicated to the city of 'Kidal', a center in the north of Mali practically located in the middle of the Sahara desert, a central city for what is the Tuareg culture, the 'legitimate' inhabitants of the desert, but at the same time due to its geographical position also historically a meeting point between different cultures.
But Kidal is at the same time also a point of 'conflict', if you will, considering that for the Tuareg people the city is the most important cultural center on the southwestern border of the Sahara where their culture is as deeply rooted as it is in some way suppressed and opposed.
Consequently, 'Kidal' is somehow hate and love, a combination of feelings that Tamikrest try to represent in this album which, in my opinion, marks a fundamental step in the band's history and for what is their sound, completing - if possible - a rite of passage that was already in progress with the release of their third studio album, 'Chatma' (2013).
The changes concern the sound of the group but also the ideal and political positions, the conceptual ones expressed by Ousmane Ag Mossa and his formation.
In fact, if in the first phase, I am referring specifically to the first two albums and the collaboration in the Dirtmusic project with Huro Race, Chris Brokman, and Chris Eckman, Tamikrest wanted to present themselves as a more 'youthful' version of Tinariwen, pursuing their cause (that Tinariwen were their main inspiration was never in question) but at the same time seeking more to get closer to certain sounds of the western rock of the seventies (to the point where we even identified kraut-rock influences), in some way with this album here it can be said that Tamikrest have finally returned home.
'Kidal' then ideally becomes the story of a group of young people who leave their homeland borders and the desert to travel the rest of the world to discover what face it has and then return home again and discover that this journey has allowed them to know themselves and their culture, the desert culture that according to Ag Mossa's own words means freedom from all oppressions. From this point of view, their journey is diametrically opposed to that pursued by Bombino, a guitarist who instead seeks much more the encounter with Western culture and traditional rock of the seventies, and closer to that of their masters, the Tinariwen, or another important and historical formation like the Terakaft. The album, therefore, sounds in a way that the Tamikrest themselves have defined as more conventional and more traditional compared to the previous ones.
I must say that this initially did not impress me positively: the album appeared to me in a certain way devoid of particular ideas and explicitly a copy of what Tinariwen do. After all, they too have made with 'Elwan' a kind of return after the successes of 'Tassili' and 'Emmaar', recorded in the US, two particularly celebrated albums but lacking the strength of their earlier works.
However, listening to it again months later, I actually found many interesting points, and I had to conclude that ultimately, as much as Ousmane Ag Mossa and his companions clearly follow in the footsteps of their masters, 'Kidal' has its own unique and peculiar sound in which the 'Tamikrest brand' can be recognized in some way.
The album is less electric than the previous ones, but nonetheless, it cannot not be defined as a rock album: 'Mawarniha Tartit', 'Wanina Adobat', 'War Toyed' sound like rock tracks in the classic western North African style and directly derived from Ali Farka Touré's blues, a direct inspirer in songs like 'Ehad Wad Nadorhan', a ballad full of shadows reflecting on the desert dunes, and the concluding 'Adad Osan Itibat'. Moreover, some reminiscences of more typically western arrangements remain in songs like 'Atwitas' or 'Adoutat Salilagh', but the most important component of the album is those typically 'desert rock' or 'tishoumaren' tracks like 'Manhouy Inerizhan', a small acoustic gem like 'Tanakra', 'Erres Hin Atouan' and 'War Tila Eridaran', a folk song that makes you think of songs like 'Bella ciao' or 'Fischia il vento'.
In 2013 after the release of 'Chatma', interviewed by journalist Andy Morgan, Ousmane Ag Mossa declared that this music, the 'tishoumaren', was born with a specific cause, that of the Tuareg people's claims. This album is clearly its celebration, where Tamikrest take in their hands the baton of the cause carried forward over the years by Tinariwen and perhaps embark on their path from which there is no longer a return.
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