Taken from 'Tamotaït'
Order LP/CD: bit.ly/tamotait
Stream/DL: idol.lnk.to/Tamotait
Tamikrest return with a vivid, irrepressible rock and roll statement. Their most powerful album since 2013’s wildly acclaimed Chatma, Tamotaït finds the band not only turning up the volume but also sharpening their meditative atmospherics and ruminations on the state of the Sahara and the world beyond. Features acclaimed Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra and a song cut with Japanese traditional musicians.
Sometimes music is more than the notes played or the words sung. Sometimes it’s a spirit that catches fire and burns with a dangerous, dazzling flame. On Tamotaït, Tamikrest’s fifth studio album, the music blazes bright and long. With the political situation so volatile and desperate in the Saharan ancestral lands from which Tamikrest come, this is more than an album. This is resistance.
But in there, too, is the dream of the future. “The definition of the album is there in its title,” explains singer, guitarist and songwriter Ousmane Ag Mossa. “Tamotaït means hope for a positive change.”
Change as in an end to the fighting that’s plagued northern Mali and the wider region for the past several years; change such as the chance to prosper within their own homeland - Azawad - a proto nation that the nomadic Tuareg (or Kel Tamasheq as they prefer to be called) briefly possessed in 2012. It is music formed from thoughts, dreams, inspiration, and above all, collective experimentation.
“We are a band and when we play together everyone brings their way of playing. For the compositions, some pieces start from a riff, another part from a melody or a rhythm and each musician adds his input afterwards. The idea was to keep a common thread that comes from Tamasheq music and to take it through different worlds, whether they come from our influences or from our encounters during our travels.”
Tamotaït is the most expansive and adventurous album that Tamikrest have made, exploring every corner of their sound. There’s even music they made far from the Sahara - in Japan. On tour there, Ag Mossa had been very taken by the sound of their traditional instruments.
“I decided to go back, to know more about the culture and music. During my visit, I composed some songs on one of the remote islands of Japan. And since the songwriting of this album started in the desert and ended on the islands in Japan, we believed that it was a good idea to reflect this on the album as well.”
Most of Tamotaït, though, was recorded in rural France, working with producer David Odlum (Glen Hansard, Gemma Hayes, Tinariwen), stepping up from his mixing role on the band’s 2016 release, Kidal.
“We wanted to make a modern album but with vintage sounds, and we fell in love with his studio, Black Box, when we visited a few years ago,” Ag Mossa explains. “We wanted to work as much as possible on the sounds beforehand and not leave everything for the mixing. So we spent time with him, finalising the arrangements before we began recording, and he also helped us a lot in the choice of amps and microphones.”
The Odlum effect is especially apparent on “Anha Achal Wad Namda.” Just listen for that moment where the taut rhythm section of Ag Mohamedine, Cheikh Ag Tiglia (bass) and Nicolas Grupp (drums) kick in and the track lifts off to the stratosphere with a full-throated roar. It’s pure, perfect rock bliss, a reminder of how music can speak with such a towering voice - and why a decade into their acclaimed career, Tamikrest have become one of the best rock’n’roll bands in the world.
That’s a big title to carry. But Tamotaït proves they’re worthy of it. This album is what rock’n’roll can be, what all music can be. Music as a weapon of hope. Songs as a vessel of truth.