Kidal

There seems to be a kind of musical arms race going on among the numerous Touareg rock’n’roll bands who have followed the mighty Tinariwen out of the Sahara. Each new release seems to want to rock out harder and heavier than anything that has gone before. Perhaps the bar was set when Robert Plant sang ‘Whole Lotta Love’ with Tinariwen at a gig in Paris in 2007, since it appears that each new Touareg band seem determined to establish themselves as the Led Zep of desert rock.

On their fourth album, Tamikrest may have come the closest yet. Compare the way tracks such as the opener ‘Mawarniba Tartit’ shake your speakers and rattle the room with Tinariwen’s 2001 debut The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and you will hear how far Touareg rock’n’roll has travelled. The 2001 recording sounds incredibly tinny alongside the heft and power of the music of Kidal, and it’s hard to believe that there are many bands in contemporary Western rock music who could shake your bones harder. ‘Wainan Adobat’ is the kind of spaced-out jam that Grateful Dead fans have wet dreams about. Perhaps it’s reflective of the struggle of a people whose nomadic way of life is under constant threat, but Tamikrest’s music blazes with a righteous intensity that is almost scary.