Black Tenere by Kel Assouf

Glitterbeat records blesses us with explosion of creativity from places that mainstream media obviously omit for the simple reason of cultural centralisation and other means and tactics of seclusion.
Kel Assouf comes with his brand new album in a manner of quite abused term such as "dessert rock"
Yes, you can definitely tell that the style of the music must be related to Ishumar classics of Tinariwen and the likes but there is more to it.
With an iconic look of Gibson Flying V, rhythmical and chord progression and that special vocal that cannot be falsified by any "world music" imitators he brings wonderful blend of ethnic flava and stoner rock music - rootsy and groovy.
There is a feel to it that spans generations but also spans the spirit of the place as band's leader Anana Ag Haroun lives between Niger and Belgium, it's the encounters of the Unknown and the New spark the right amount of tension and in beautiful production of band's keyboardist.
It's also an expression of poetry Kel Tamashek people which are obviously named in a colonial manner as "Touareg". The verse of yearning - how to find the place that you belong to when you are being dislocated and cultural remains of colonial past still loom around.
How can you give justice to music of such complex meaning and yet so direct in its architectural simplicity?
Plunge into it!

bandcamp link

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