Review:

on 2011-06-26 CharlesMartel Said:

When faced with an album such as "Aman Iman" you have to tread very carefully. The tendency is always going to be there to slip into some cliched statements about music returning to its West African roots, or jabbering on about how the band have melded western instruments with traditional rhythms and themes to bring a truly vivid blah blah talk guff guff pretentious blah bull guff blah shit blah blah.

Take this extract from a review (not on this site): a classic piece of kaftan-wearing, free-trade-organic-frappuchino-drinking, Hampstead-chattering-class, organic-sun-blushed tomato-cooking-on-an-antique-aga, pompous wankery 

"When you hear this music clan...a listener can hear the calm of the desert night air and the serenity of the musicians who live there. The Taureg (sic) people truly seem to be of the land and never more so than here."

Pseuds who write nonsense like that in a music review need to be slapped. He can't even spell Tuareg!

So let's get a few things straight. What this is, pure and simple, is a flexibly sized group of Tuareg guys, with a core of five or so at the heart, writing songs in a style familiar to them, and playing them on whatever musical instruments they see fit. It is a not a musical bridge across cultures: it is not a unique statement; it is not a reason to go all orgasmic about the purity of Tuareg culture. It is, nothing more nothing less, music. An electric guitar is an electric guitar. It doesn't sound inherently different if a Tuareg guy plays it than it would if a Papuan tribesman did. Each may bring their musical heritage to the table, and this will show in the arrangements of the chords and the pace of the rhythm, but it does not become a different instrument, better or worse, depending on who's playing it. Similarly with the vocals. If you are a Tuareg looking for vocal backing for a song, it is not surprising that the female ululating voice will feature.

Why then, do some people try to convey the impression that this is something different to what it actually is - music? What makes some pretentious poser describe the guitars, as I read in one magazine review, as "dusty"? For God's sake, dusty can be used to describe its colour, its physical appearance or the condition in which it has been kept, not its sound! This kind of description does no credit to the music. Some will jump on this as a cultural bandwagon as if this is some sort of politically correct requirement: others will shun it because they detect too much pretension. Neither appreciates it for the music it contains.

So, what is the music that it contains? And why is it worth listening to, and possibly getting into if you like the sound of it? Well, at its heart lie traditional Tuareg musical structures. The percussion consists of small drums, tambourines and a good deal of clapping. There is quite a bit of call and response vocals, with the response often delivered by a chorus of male and female voices. Sometimes, there is ululation which can be a bit disconcerting to those of us not used to that particular vocal technique.

What makes this though, without doubt, are the guitars. Their starting point is a light, almost funky rhythm reminiscent of Carlos Santana. The rhythm guitar provides a solid funky foundation which never threatens to overpower. The combination of percussion, vocals and rhythm guitar thus forms a musical canvas over which the lead guitar chatters, writhes and spins in and out of the sound. Sometimes in the background, sometimes coming to the fore, the lead guitar really makes the music stand out. In spite of what you may read elsewhere, the guitars do not sound any different, they are just used in a sometimes unfamiliar way to create a sound which is both recognisable and unfamiliar at the same time.

It would be pointless to describe individual tracks, because together they comprise a suite of music which is its own reference point. Just listen to the sound, enjoy the way the guitar draws you into the heart, and put aside any prejudices, preconceived notions or inappropriate pomposity about the nobility of the Tuareg soul, the purity of the culture, the ethereal beauty of the desert (ridiculous cliches all). Just take it as it is, like you would any other music, and decide for yourself whether you like it.
Rating: 7/10