Tinariwen mixes everything from indie rock to trance to African politics – Washington Post

By Mark Jenkins By Mark Jenkins April 21

Outsiders call their people Tuareg, but the members of Tinariwen are more likely to use Kel Tamashek, the title of the first song they played Wednesday at the Barns of Wolf Trap. It refers to those who speak Tamashek, a Berber language of the region where the borders of Mali, Algeria, Libya and Niger blur in desert sands. The bands name in Tamashek was projected on the wall behind the stage as the musicians produced sounds that were as exotic to Americans as their face-covering turbans and yet sometimes sounded eerily familiar.

Tinariwens lineup is fluid, with as many as nine musicians on tour and others involved only in recording. Wednesdays 90-minute concert began with six people onstage, fronted by singer-guitarist Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni. Soon they were joined by the man most often called the groups leader, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib. The only one of the seven who didnt wear a turban, Ag Alhabib took the main role on almost as many songs as Ag Alhousseyni. The third frontman, Alhassane Ag Touhami, served mostly as a singer and dancer. But he was up front for two numbers, proving himself as deft a guitarist as the other two.

To Western ears, the oddest yet most congenial thing about the bands simultaneously plaintive and rollicking style is its reliance on electric guitars. Two and occasionally three of them sauntered and cycled together, sliding in and out of phase. While Elaga Ag Hamids chunky rhythm guitar brought the funk, the leads ranged from primal to ethereal, suggesting everything from Chicago blues to modal indie-rock to the trance music of Berber gnawa groups such as the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Hand drummers Said Ag Ayad and Mohammed Ag Tahada paced the guitars, sometimes jumping ahead of the beat and compelling the others to gallop to catch up.

Ag Alhousseyni played mostly acoustic guitar, a choice that also helps define the bands new album, Elwan (The Elephants). It was partly recorded in California in the desert, of course with such indie-rock guests as Kurt Vile and Mark Lanegan. The latter contributes a few lines in English to Nannuflay, one of seven Elwan tunes the band performed at the Barns. But the outsiders seem to have shaped the album much less than did Ag Alhousseyni, whose style contains as much Andres Segovia as Bo Diddley. At the Barns, he prefaced such songs as Assawat with Bach-rock intros.

Theres joy in such instrumental flourishes, but the new album also expresses resignation. The Elephants refers to the war between governments and jihadists in Sahara, which threatens to crush the Kel Tamashek. Lifting their voices Wednesday night, though, the members of Tinariwen sounded as indomitable as ever.

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Tinariwen mixes everything from indie rock to trance to African politics - Washington Post