Hi All
You either heard or missed the following on tonight's show.
Quite a few tracks from the World Circuit double disc World Circuit Presents, a disc which came out last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the label. Mostly African and Cuban content,this is none the less a fantastic collection of tracks from a label which has recorded some of the most influential world music artists in the last two decades eg Afro Cuban All Stars, Ali Farka Toure, Buena Vista Social Club, Toumani Diabate and so much more.
One of the best releases in the last few months has been the third release by the group Tinariwen from Mali. This group of desert dwellers has a sound that is raw and honest, bluesy and in its own way very original. There are a lot of Algerian and Moroccan rhythms influences here but at its' heart is music which sings about the love of the desert and its people. I had been aware of them but had never really listened until this disc turned up. I'll definitely be following up on the other two releases. 10/10
From the Tinariwen press release...
The Tinariwen story is already well marinated in startling myths; fierce nomadic desert tribesmen toting guns and guitars, Ghadaffi's poet-soldiers spreading their gospel of freedom throughout the world, turbaned rock'n'roll troubadours, Stratocaster on one shoulder, Kalashnikov on the other, 17 bullet wounds and rawest desert blues on earth. All this fabulous imagery is the modern equivalent of the legends that have always stuck to Tinariwen's people, the nomadic Touareg of the southern Sahara; the noble desert warrior, the blue man, the lord of the desert, mysterious, secretive, covered from head to toe with eyes only bared to the world.
Like all myths, like all legends, there's plenty of truth mixed in there with the wild fantasy and wishful thinking. But the real story is deeper, richer, more engrossing, and more universal. In the desert oasis of Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, three aimless teenage friends in exile – Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Hassan Ag Touhami aka 'The Lion of the Desert' and Inteyeden - fall in love with the guitar, and with all the dreams of modernity and freedom that it embodies. They write songs about their own lives and about those of their friends, the modern Touareg youth, no longer lording over the desert on their camels, but living the clandestino life far from home, surviving by any means necessary, longing for friends and family, dreaming of retribution, of freedom, of self-determination. They are Kel Tinariwen, the 'desert boys'.
In the 1980s, all three become soldier-musicians, lured into military camps in Libya by Colonel Ghadaffi. Their songs become the soundtrack of a time and of a movement; the ishumar, the Sahara desert's Generation X. They fight a brief, painful rebellion against the government of Mali. They accept peace. They become full-time musicians and meet LoJo, a group of musical adventurers from Angers in France. They stage the first Festival in the Desert, visit Europe for the first time, release two albums including the award winning 'Amassakoul' and tour the world. This whole epic story takes 28 years to unfold.
And now the third album, 'Aman Iman: Water Is Life'. No difficulties here, apart from the 1,200-mile journey from their desert home in Kidal, north-eastern Mali, to the recording studio in the capital Bamako. Tinariwen simply delved into their seemingly inexhaustible trove of songs and dusted down 12 classics, which they worked up with the help of live sound engineer Jaja, producer Justin Adams (Robert Plant's guitarist and producer of the first Tinariwen CD 'Radio Tisdas Sessions') and recording engineer Ben Findlay. It only took ten days at Bogolan studios to nail them down and freeze frame the raw power and tenderness of modern desert blues at its best.
The whole Tinariwen story breathes through those twelve songs, beginning with the first Touareg rebellion of 1963, which lies at the root of so much pain and trauma in the Malian Touareg mindset and which is vividly recalled by Ibrahim in his brooding song 'Soixante Trois'. There are songs like the raw driving 'Cler Achel' or the banshee wailing 'Assouf', about exile and homesickness, longing and loss. There are calls for unity amongst the fractious Touareg clans, like the uplifting anthemic 'Matadjem Yinmixan' or the dubbed up 'Toumast'. There are 'Ahimana' and 'Awa Didjen', the loping ghostly trance-songs of Japonais, a poet of genius who hasn't worked with Tinariwen since 2002. And there are simple songs of love, both romantic love, as in 'Ikyadarh Dim', and that abiding love of their desert home which underpins everything about Tinariwen and finds haunting expression in 'Izarharh Tenere'.
So forget the myths, forget the 'guns-and-guitars' fantasies and tales of blue-men on their camels. The humanity, the wonder and the epic sweep of the real Tinariwen story doesn't need any photoshopping or romantic embellishments. It is the raw tale of an everyman, who was cut off from history and embraced the modern world, who lost his home and found solace in the guitar, who through pain and exile invented a new style of music that could express who he is and where he's going. Nothing mythical or exotic about that. You can find the same story the world over.
Tinariwen would like to dedicate 'Aman Iman' to "Peace, tolerance and development in the Sahara and in the world of the oppressed."
Backspin is a compilation of popular tracks remixed by some of the artists on Six Degrees Records. it's all about paying respect to the past by reinterpreting it, with an eye towards the future sound of the label. Lovely stuff. I don't like all of it but there's enough there to make me think it's a good addition to the label inventory.
From Six Degrees media release...
Six Degrees Records has spent the last ten years crossing musical borders. And to celebrate that milestone, the label looks ahead to the future by looking back, with a collection of surprising and distinctive covers: Backspin, a Six Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project. Backspin features a dozen artists from the label's eclectic global roster, each presenting a new spin on an old favorite. Songs by Led Zeppelin, The Police, The Cure, and Pink Floyd, among others, are re-imagined by Six Degrees stalwarts including Karsh Kale, MIDIval PunditZ, Banco de Gaia, Ojos de Brujo, and more.
CHEIK LO- BOUL DI TAGAL- CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
A PALACIO- WATINA- CD WATINA
TINARIWEN- CLER ACHEL- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
TINARIWEN- IMIDIWAN WINAKALIN- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
TINARIWEN- IKYADARH DIM- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
BELLEMOU MESSAOUD- RIRE ZARGA QUANA- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
OMARA PORTUONDO- FLOR DE AMOR- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
ORLANDO CACHAITO LOPEZ- TUMBANGA- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
SIERRA MAESTRO= JUANA PENA - *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
TOUMANI DIABATE & SYMMETRIC ORCHESTRA- TAPHA NIANG- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
A PALACIO- BABA- CD WATINA
AFRO CUBAN ALL STARS- AMOR VERDADORE- CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
TINARIWEN- IZARHARH TENERE- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
TINARIWEN- MATADJEM YINMIXAN- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
RACHID TAHA LIVE - ROCK THE CASBAH / YA RAYAH
BOMBAY DUB ORCHESTRA- GET CARTER REMIX- CD BACKSPIN (SIX DEGREES RECORDS)
OJOS DE BRUJO- GET UP STAND UP REMIX- CD BACKSPIN (SIX DEGREES RECORDS
