Tinariwen - Emmaar

Due to the ongoing political turmoil in their native Mali, nomadic Tuareg bluesmen Tinariwen relocated thousands of miles to a different desert to make the follow-up to 2011’s Grammy-winning Tassili. Produced by Patrick Votan and mixed by Vance Powell (Jack White, The Dead Weather), Emmaar was recorded over three weeks in a home studio in the Joshua Tree National Park.

Given that they were once dubbed ‘the Grateful Dead of the Sahara’, it’s hardly surprising that they chose to make their sixth album in the US. From the opening track of this distinctly organic-sounding recording, however, it’s obvious that their musical heart still lies in their troubled homeland. On ‘Toumast Tincha’ (which translates as “The People Have Been Sold Out’), vocalist Ag Leche sings, “The ideals of the people have been sold cheap, my friends/ A peace imposed by force is bound to fail/ And gives way to hatred.”

As ever, it’s a rotating crew of players: there’s almost 20 in the collective. Along with the ‘80s founders (vocalists and guitarists Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, and Alhassane Ag Touhami) and the younger generation who joined in the ‘90s, a number of American musicians guest on the album. These include Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and Nashville fiddler Fats Kaplin.

Emmaar is their most American-sounding album to date, but it will undoubtedly speak most strongly to North African ears. Mostly sung in the Tamasheq language, these 11 songs are politically charged (in January of last year, guitarist Abdallah Ag Lamida was arrested by the Islamist authorities in Northern Mali), but also often melancholic, mournful and slowpaced. It’s percussion-driven, stripped-down Saharan soul, overlaid with meandering blues guitars and multi-layered vocals.

The militant Islamists currently ruling large swathes of Mali consider Tinariwen to be purveyors of “Satan’s music”. If that’s the case, then the Devil really does have all the best tunes.