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All around the town of Kidal, the Malian desert stretches in every direction. Endless horizons of rock and sand, barren and parched. This is the southwestern edge of the Sahara, the home of the Tuareg people, and the Kidal is one of their main cultural centers. Fought over, conquered, and reconquered, it remains the symbol of Tuareg defiance and hope, the spiritual home of a dispossessed people. It is also the town in which Tamikrest first came together as a group, and on Kidal, Tamikrest's fourth studio album, the band pays homage to this place that's nurtured them and their people. It's a cry of suffering and the yell of rebellion. It's power and resistance. This is pure Tuareg rock 'n' roll. "I wrote most of the songs when I was in the desert," explains singer and lead guitarist Ousmane Ag Mossa. But it had to be that way, he says. "If you want to talk about the situation, you really need to live it." From the simmering intensity behind the opener, "Mawarniha Tartit," through the sweet slide work of second guitarist Paul Salvagnac on "Atwitas" to the full-blooded roar on "Adoutat Salilagh," this is a band fired with passion for their people and the centuries of injustice they've endured. "Kidal, the cradle of all these uprisings, continues to resist the many acts perpetrated by obscure hands against our people," notes band associate Rhissa Ag Mohamed. "This album evokes all the suffering and manipulation of our populations caught in pincers on all sides." From their debut in 2010 onward, Tamikrest have had the fire in their music, and it's built with each release. Chatma, their third disc, hit number one on the World Music Charts Europe and was acclaimed as one of the albums of the year in publications across the globe. Songlines magazine gave them the Best Group Award, while their live performances showed a band whose sound sent sparks flying. With Kidal, that blaze is roaring. The songs here mirror their joys, their pain and their unwillingness to accept things as they are. There's a raw beauty in Tamikrest's rock 'n' roll. It's there in the driving, insistent groove that powers the songs, the lean, snaking basslines and guitars that twine and twist around the melodies, and the utterly natural musical blending of Sahel Africa, the Maghreb, and the West -- a reflection of influences as diverse as Pink Floyd, Rachid Taha, and flamenco. Yet the Sahara, and the people who live there, is always firmly at its heart. This album celebrates who the Tuareg are, the Kel Tamasheq ("those who speak Tamasheq"), the keepers of an ancient and endangered cultural voice. Kidal is the music of defiance, of hope. It's rock 'n' roll from the Sahara, the sound of the Tuareg dream, a dream that will be renewed again, in their ancestral town: Kidal. Recorded at Studio Bogolan, Bamako, Mali, August and September, 2016. Produced by Mark Mulholland (Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra). Mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer David Odlum (Tinariwen) at Black Box Recording, Noyant-la-Gravoyère, France. Ousmane Ag Mossa: vocals, lead guitar, acoustic guitar; Aghaly Ag Mohamedine: djembe, backing vocals; Cheick Ag Tiglia: bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals; Paul Salvagnac: lead and rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar; Nicolas Grupp: drums and percussion.
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