Amadjar

Following the takeover of their homeland in northern Mali by militant Islamists in 2012, Tinariwen recorded their last two albums in the US. Both contained some fine and often rather sombre music, but severed from their desert roots, something didn’t quite seem right. The change in the dynamic may have been small but it was perceptible – and it was hard not to conclude that the pain of loss and separation had resulted in a diminution of their fiery Touareg pride and passion. Tinariwen sensed it, too, and to record Amadjar they returned to the desert, working up their new songs under the Saharan stars on a 12-day journey across Morocco and Mauritania and then recording them in a large tent pitched near Nouakchott. There they were joined by Noura Mint Seymali and her guitarist husband Jeiche Ould Chigaly and additional instrumentation was later overdubbed by a bunch of Western indie rockers.

The outside contributions are valuable, particularly the droning violin of the Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis on ‘Tenere Maloulat’ and the mandolin of Micah Nelson from Neil Young's band adds a sparkling texture to ‘Anina’. But it is essentially ornamentation, for at the core of the record is the soul and dignity of Tinariwen, restored to their natural milieu and back to their best, from the intense blues-rock of ‘Zawal’ to the more playful rhythms of ‘Taqkal Tarha’ via the timeless acoustic majesty of the closing track ‘Lalla’.