Issiktane

Sidi Abdallah’s name may be new but devotees of Touareg guitar music will be more than familiar with his father, Niger’s Abdallah Oumbadougou, who was one of the pioneers of the ishumar style of desert blues and whose 1990s recordings preceded Tinariwen by several years. Oumbadougou, who died in 2020, was a mentor to a generation of Nigerien musicians, including his guitar-playing son who now joins the Touareg cause with a rather impressive debut album on which he is accompanied by the bass playing of Dawoul Ahamouk and percussion of Djamilou Rabey. The trio format results in a stripped-down sound, raw and direct, rather like a garage-rock take on the desert blues.

Sidi’s rhythm playing is energetic and his lead lines virtuosic as he sings about the Touaregs’ struggle and on ‘Souvenir’, the longest track, pays tribute to his father’s memory. Intriguingly, he made this reviewer think of the late Irish bluesman Rory Gallagher, whose playing was a strong influence on Tinariwen’s main man Ibrahim Ag Alhabib. With only seven tracks the only problem is that the set is far too short and just half an hour’s music leaves one wanting more.