Elwan (Elephants), perhaps their most powerful album since Amassakoul, confronts their situation head-on, in songs musing on the values of ancestry, unity and fellowship, driven by the infectiously hypnotic cyclical guitar grooves that wind like creepers around their poetic imagery.
Once again, all their music is crisply played, and smartly sequenced. Yet while Elwan may not herald any grand stylistic breakthrough, it does manage to synthesize some of the group’s most recent experiments in a way that helps distinguish it within their overall catalog.
On their latest record, Elwan, this band of recently-outlawed musicians sound as immediate as ever, bursting with ideas and musical themes that throw influences from blues, folk, rock and their local tishoumaren into an irresistible melting pot.
By making the geographically distant feel welcomingly familiar, Tinariwen have made Elwan a can't-miss release for curious audiences from all corners of the globe.
It’s the haunted croak of the band’s main singers, Ibrahim and Abdallah, that are the main draw: the sound of heartbroken gangleader, the world-weary soldier, bravado replaced by tenderness. It’s a sound that suits them perfectly.
Their last studio record saw them in upbeat, energetic form, and whilst that playfulness is still present at times on Elwan, there is a conscious grounding too this time around.
Con este album descubrí a esta interesante formacion. Me decepcionaron bastante con su posterior disco, "Amadjar". Aquí si que lograron hacer muy buenas composiciones.
As a child growing up in war torn Mali of the 1960’s, master guitar player Ibrahim Ag Alhabib built his very first guitar using nothing more than a tin can, stick and bicycle wire. By age 19 he had migrated to Algeria and in 1979 assembled the players who were to become Tinariwen (meaning “deserts”), ultimately returning to Mali following a cease-fire over a decade later. Seven albums, one Grammy and some 40 odd years since their initial formation Tinariwen are back with ... read more
Con este album descubrí a esta interesante formacion. Me decepcionaron bastante con su posterior disco, "Amadjar". Aquí si que lograron hacer muy buenas composiciones.
As a child growing up in war torn Mali of the 1960’s, master guitar player Ibrahim Ag Alhabib built his very first guitar using nothing more than a tin can, stick and bicycle wire. By age 19 he had migrated to Algeria and in 1979 assembled the players who were to become Tinariwen (meaning “deserts”), ultimately returning to Mali following a cease-fire over a decade later. Seven albums, one Grammy and some 40 odd years since their initial formation Tinariwen are back with ... read more
1 | Tiwàyyen 3:44 | |
2 | Sastanàqqàm 3:24 | |
3 | Nizzagh Ijbal 3:39 | |
4 | Hayati 3:23 | |
5 | Ittus 3:45 | |
6 | Ténéré Tàqqàl 4:25 | |
7 | Imidiwàn N-Àkall-In 3:33 | |
8 | Talyat 4:14 | |
9 | Assàwt 3:39 | |
10 | Arhegh Ad Annàgh 2:47 | |
11 | Nànnuflày 5:03 | |
12 | Intro Flute Fog Edaghan 1:26 | |
13 | Fog Edaghàn 3:05 |
#8 | / | Fopp |
#14 | / | Digital Trends |
#54 | / | Uncut |
/ | Variety |