Awalin

Steve Shehan is a man who has been there and done that, earning his crust playing percussion with Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N’Dour, Khaled, Rokia Traoré and too many others to mention. His collaborations with the Touareg singer and oud player Baly Othmani from Djanet in Algeria (who sadly died in a flood in 2005), injected a welcome dose of innovation into the Touareg music scene and Ikewan, a CD by the wide Othmani clan which Shehan produced, is still one of the best collections of traditional Touareg music available.

So respect is due. But that doesn’t mean the “don’t disturb me, I’m gettin’ jiggy with infinity look” that plays across Shehan’s face on the front cover of Awalin isn’t hellishly annoying. And the music suffers from the same pseudo-spiritual self-satisfaction. The performances are all technically proficient in a very navel-gazing jazzy way. But the whole thing reminds me of those airbrushed paintings of the noble Touareg against a sunset of mystical oranges that you can buy in the departure lounge of Tamanrasset airport. It’s a distant hazy filtered vision of the Sahara, which is all well and good if you’ve arrived in the desert on a one-way trip to Nirvana, but which says little about living in the damn place, its human depth or its hard-edged soul. The fact that Othmani’s vocals and guitar are so often pushed to the back of the mix robs this music of the teeth it might otherwise have had. Some songs, like ‘Tara Net,’ start very simply and promisingly, but then washes of musical mysticism and naff alien chords quickly send them up their own jacksie. Mix, innovate and fuse away, by all means – Tamashek music needs a little innovation right now. But here, bittersweet realities have been ditched in pursuit of a karma-kola dream.