Tamikrest - Aratan N Tinariwen

Описание: Toumastin (2011)
The song is an ode to the vast desert, a place so spiritually liberating that it has inspired Touareg culture for centuries.

Tamikrest are from Kidal, a remote desert town in the northwest of the Sahara, some 2,000 kilometres north of Bamako, the capital of Mali. The band members are all Tuaregs, a group of people that is spread all over North and some of West Africa (Niger, Mali, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Libya).
Tamikrest are a group of young Touareg musicians from the far north of Mali, where the parched landscape forms part of the Sahara desert. Their name means 'the knot, junction or coalition', a reference to the fact that the members hail from different regions, and 'Adagh' is another name for the Touareg, who are also referred to by their language, Tamashek.

They're being dubbed 'the spiritual sons of Tinariwen' -- the original exponents of the 'Ishumar rock' (Touareg rebel music), and right from the first notes of this debut album, it's obvious who they've modelled their music on. While Tinariwen have four lead vocalists and writers, Tamikrest's Ousmane Ag Mossa is the sole featured singer and songwriter. His lyrics follow much the same themes as theirs, though, focussing most often on the Touareg struggle for self determination as an oppressed group in contemporary Malian society.

Founded in 2006, they had a hard time getting exposure in their homeland as it proved to be difficult for music with ancient traditions in a country that is flooded with Western-influenced hip-hop and pop. Things changed abruptly when they played the Festival Au Desert in 2008 and met with the American/Australian band Dirtmusic made up of Chris Eckman (Walkabouts), Chris Brokaw (Come) and Hugo Race (Hugo Race & True Spirit). Tamikrest's front man Ousmane Ag Mossa talks about the fateful meeting: "We jammed in tents, open air in the desert sand and on stage. This has extended my musical knowledge tremendously and from that point on I played my guitar in a different way. Through Dirtmusic we had the chance to work in a professional studio for the first time. There was no way had we would let that opportunity pass, so we travelled the long way from Kidal to Bamako."

With their second album 'Toumastin' the young Tuareg rebels create their own universe using even brighter colours. The enchanted ancient mystique of the songs captures the ear immediately, but as the music carries on the band bridges the gap between the African Blues and hypnotic dub, psychedelic funk and an almost supernatural kind of desert garage. The guitars are more offensive, the groove deepens and the Tamaschek chants are merging with the meandering guitar riffs like a caravan voyage through ancient times. Tamikrest are ready to embrace the future while proudly maintaining the rich tradition of their folk.