Tamikrest
Toumastin

Tamikrest now fly on their own. No longer in the shadow of Tinariwen and even less of Dirtmusic, for whom they played as a backing band on last year’s album, BKO, which brought them to the world’s attention. Now their songs, which blend psychedelic and acid rock made in the USA with the style of Ali Farka Touré (the figure who initiated this discovery of "Sahara rock") and the Tishoumaren of Tinariwen (a genre that combines delta blues, traditional rock with Touareg music), can stand alone.

Amazingly, this growth has occurred in just over a year. In fact, under the watchful eye of Chris Eckman, who produced both the debut album (the more introspective "Adagh") and the Dirtmusic album (of which, along with Chris Brokaw and Hugo Race, he is a part), the Tamikrest produce a masterpiece. 11 beautiful songs, important and inspired where the Tuareg band comes even closer to their listenings of Bob Marley (the offbeat rhythms), Pink Floyd, and Dire Straits. Fans of these 3 groups should listen up. Therefore, the world music aspect loses something in this album compared to the previous one, but it gains in everything else. Surely the element that most resonates with classic rock is the guitar, both acoustic and electric. Surely, Tamikrest without it would be a different group. But the guitars are there (as many as 4 play at certain points of the album) and they are heard. Rarely in recent times have we heard such skilled mastery of riffs or solos for debutants. The bass is also well-utilized, a very tribal bass, whose task is to keep the rhythm, reminding us a bit of the funk (in "Tarhamanine Assinegh"). The biggest difference is the drums. In this album, they are not replaced by traditional percussion. Except in the last song, Dihad Tedoun Itran, which is indeed the most western and also the weakest of the album. That is to say, it’s not bad, it’s a nice song, only the rest are beautiful.

The language sung is obviously that Tamashek we already know thanks to Tinariwen, once again a sign of identity, that of the nomadic Tuareg people, which cannot be overlooked but, on the contrary, as a people often offended and violated, must still be a source of pride. The Tamikrest solve this language difficulty by providing translations in English in the booklet. First Ali Farka Touré, then Tinariwen, now Tamikrest. It doesn’t seem so unachievable that one day North Africa could become what Canada is today and what Australia was in the ’80s: places practically unknown for music but from which solid and brilliant bands and singers have started to emerge, composing beautiful and important albums.

Of course, I'm more skeptical about a possible resolution of the Tuareg people's problem, without the use of guns but only with guitars. But if only this music continues to come from those areas, and we can only hope, maybe our much-discredited world isn’t really as bad as they say.