| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Amassakoul |  | |
Amassakoul
It's a long way from the Mississippi Delta to the Sahara Desert. But somehow the snaking blues lines and hypnotic guitar figures of bluesman like John Lee Hooker resonated with the members of Tinariwen, who set aside traditional Touareg instruments two decades ago to play electric guitar. The follow-up to 2000's spellbinding Radio Tisdas, Amassakoul again features galloping rhythms, desert wails and, of course, electric guitar--up to four guitars snarl, burr and howl to create the spacious interlocking desert blues groove that is this group’s calling card. Eerie call-and-response vocals draw listeners in as well, conjuring up visions of a night around the campfire in the open desert air. This album also reveals that Tinariwen is more flexible than would be originally thought--the blues riffs are more varied and the music is augmented with more complicated arrangements and better production values. Another stunning effort, Amassakoul finds the band honing its art and spreading its wings musically to great effect. –-Tad Hendrickson
Manufacturer: World Village USA
Price Range: $13.40 - $19.98
 Amassakoul
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| User Reviews |  | Rebel Soul
rating: 5
Spellbinding guitars, hypnotic percussion, vocals which evoke the desert plains which they have wandered for the past two decades - this is music about the struggle against oppression and nature in equal measure.
I highly recommend this album to anyone who is interested to find out how the electric guitar can be transformed into a symbol of protest.
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Worth a listen
rating: 4
African musicianship and sincerity leave the rock music world dead and this is no exception. Great guitar playing, good rythmn and I have listened to this regularly on the road in my car for a couple of months ...but. It reminds me of my reaction to Bob Marley and the Wailers, something in their psyche and mine do not quite gel. In Bob Marley's case brain numbness from ganga was starting to set in even on his first album - despite Bob's Rasta beliefs, drugs cut off contact with the holy spirit and keep the music stuck in the world of plants. I know some great albums have been made by musicians on drugs but only in the first few years of their career, sooner or later drugs kill off the creative spark. I don't know what it is about Tinariwen but there is something not quite complete in this music.
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Funky!
rating: 5
Picture galloping across the desert on horseback. What would be your theme music? Well, this beautiful desert blues CD, of course. My favorite tracks are "Oualahila Ar Teninam", "Chatma", "Tenere Dafeo Nikchan", and "Aldhechen Manin".
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A GREAT ADDITION TO YOUR WORLD MUSIC COLLECTION
rating: 5
Warning: Not listening to this CD may cause you to experience a traumatic loss of musical enlightenment, cultural awareness, and soul.
A little geography and sociology first....Tinariwen is a Tuareg/Berber musical group from Mali, North Africa. You know, Sahara Desert, camels, henna tattoos, and all that. They formed in 1982, and their name means "empty places" in their native tongue. They did a lot of low-tech recording for nearly 20 years; mainly rebel music supporting Tuareg independence from the government of Mali. In 2000 they were "discovered" by the West; they have since played in France, England, and the USA, and have sparked a lot of interest, wherever they play.
Amassakoul ("Traveller"), their second album, is a unique and wonderful fusion CD. Tinariwen has masterfully incorporated 1950's - 1960's era American blues/rock electric guitar with their already formidable Tuareg vocals and percussion. Listening to these tracks, I got the feeling that Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, and maybe even Jimi Hendrix all took to the Sahara by caravan, and started jamming with their Tuareg hosts. The result is hypnotic, funky, and exhilarating. I count Amassakoul among the best CD's I have heard, in any genre.
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AMAZING!!!
rating: 5
Man, I thought I heard it all.WRONG. These guys can really rock man, I mean really rock. THis music is so groovy that'll make James Brown blush. It's like Bob Marley , BB King, A group of Traditional African Musicians were making music together. The style, apparently new, since Tinariwen( Tashmarek for "empty places" is the first band ever in their country to use electric guitars, is called Tishoumaren and represents the voice of the Tuareg people.BUY this and you won't be disappointed!!!
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Amassakoul
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