“To try to sell records internationally, most African bands feel a necessity to tone down their ethnicity and make their sound more palatable to European ears by adding synthesisers and other ‘western’ instruments. Not Tinariwen. Despite the electric guitars, their music is raw, earthy and unmediated. Their prowling rhythms, guttural call-and-response vocals sung entirely in the tribal language of Tamashek, mantra-like chants and loping, hypnotic melodies make no concessions to the ephemeral trends of pop fashionability. And yet, their music seems totally modern and accessible. Somehow in the remote isolation of the Sahara, they have created a sound that, as one reviewer put it, “can be instantly enjoyed by a Western rock audience but which doesn’t feel compromised”.
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“African music is often known for its talking drums and the incredible sounds drummers make with various slaps, hits, and dampened thumps. For Tinariwen, though, it’s the guitars that seem to speak. Like Delta blues musicians, the guitarists of Tinariwen coax expressive sounds by thumbing the low bass strings and simultaneously picking and twanging the higher notes. Tinariwen proves that the twang is king—Fenders and Gibsons don’t need to scream, screech, or howl to create a music rich in meaning and passion. The guitar can float and swirl, can bend and sway, creating a beat to which even a crowd of white American rock fans can dance.”
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• TINARIWEN – Sons of the desert by Andy Morgan
• TINARIWEN#2 – La dolce vita, desert style by Andy Morgan
• Tinariwen at Old Town School by Robert Loerzel

Documentaries

• Aman Iman
• Tinariwen Documentary Part 1
• Tinariwen Documentary Part 2