Group Inerane
Sublime Frequencies Group Inerane :
Guitars from Agadez (NI,rec.2004 & 2007)***°
There has been given some attention lately to the African desert blues Touareg group from Mali,Tinarwen. The last group seems to have become one of the forerunners to spread the word into the world, with guitar music and songs, making their own identity stronger with music. This kind of music was originally meant as a word of music against oppression in their home countries, Mali and Niger, where political and economic profits over the areas caused the first oppression of the Touaregs. Many Touaregs found refuge in military camps in Libya lead by Colonel Ghadaffi, where they were given guns as well as guitars. The music style of rebellion was called “Touareg guitar”. Kaddhafi however had his own political goals as well as religious associations, and the Touaregs felt threatened a second time, feeling the dangers of oppression by forces using the sort of restricting Islam with its political purposes hidden behind it. I still don’t know how many Touaregs were forced to embrace this religion form or how many accepted, and then in which form. Anyhow, their last word remained their music to spread into the world while keeping some of their traditions and origins and a right for their own identity-in-essence intact. The music also works as a conscious mobilisation for their people who lost, as nomads, the open roads and open skies as their main visions. Since 1995 there has been some halt in the conflict, so that the war image disapeared, something which made the music flourish better, even more so to entertain and to give meaning to the people attending.
The group leader and guitarist of this group, Group Inerane, Bibi Ahmed learned various songs fromAbdallah Oumbadougou, so he can be seen as his teacher. Abdallah Oumbadougou, with his groupDesert Rebel, nowadays, is the second forerunner and one of the most important enigmatic Touareg figures to spread the music with its consciousness throughout the land and the world. There has been made a French documentary lately, called “Desert Rebel”, with CD. It seems like it contains some nice guitar pieces but also some great electric guitar wildness, so I guess I will also need to check this one out for sure, and to compare.
Group Inerane’s songs all smoothly drives on handclap rhythms, and is mostly accompanied by two neatly played electric guitars and drums, with portions of typical North African & Berber-sounds of female vocal lillilililing, singing also in a family gathering way. This reveals often a small family-like gathering, singing and dancing a bit along. The sort of repeated themes in combination with this family meeting feeling sounds really very “African”. The first three tracks are somewhat similar. The fourth track is wilder, more distorted, less well recorded and a bit noisy recording, even with all noise filtered out. It contains some more adventurous electric guitar, sounding like psychedelic garage, and is rather hypnotic when you dig with your attention deeply into this recording. Some other track on side B reveals also a bit more electric guitar improvisation. One specific track I found also really interesting for its use of different, African percussive instruments, something which in some way still gave a more original sound with its own world of expression.
This is a special document, has a certain directness and raw (lat's say) "garage" side to it, it is still very interesting, and at times also a bit hypnotic. Limited one-time pressing LP of 1000 copies.
Sublime Frequencies Group Inerane :
Guitars from Agadez vol.3 (NI,rec.2010)***°
This is volume three of the Agadez series, it is in fact recorded in Niger’s capital Niamey this time, as traveling to Agadez was forbidden by the military junta that had just overthrown president Mamadou Tandja and therefore was also dangerous. Perhaps you remember volume one. Front guitarist Adi Mohammed in the meanwhile was shot dead in one of the rebellion battles. Bibi Ahmed now became the front guitarist. He agreed to come over from Agadez, arranged a Niamey-based drummer, Mohamed Atchinguel, the younger brother of Inerane’s original drummer, a bass player, Abdulai Sidi Mohamed, and second guitarist Absoulahi “Koudede” Maman. This additional guitarist is considered to belong to the second wave of guitarists (Tinarwen and Abdulla Oumbadougou being the first wave, and group Inerane and Bombino amongst others the third manifestation of Touareg electric guitar movements).
This is no compilation but a complete concert, which is an advantage because in that way the tracks hang together well in a steady mood. The album was released in a small edition on LP before. I missed it. But here is the CD reissue.
The album immediately sets the tone right with a highlighting electric droning hypnotic groove from the first second, some additional singing, good melting together swing-low combinations of guitars, and well blended drums. This mode is rather psychedelic as an effect. Then follows some bluesier tracks, and some known Touareg songs with certain repetitive melodies to shake your head along to, vaguely reminiscent to the call / response traditions, with guitar solos improvising a bit around the rhythmically and wordy driven melodies of the songs. The hypnotic electric effect with groovy rhythms has a rather constant turning wheel so the band keeps the mood constant well, in a mostly still rather relaxed way. On the last track the electric guitars convince with its themes in a slightly rockier arrangement.
The recording quality is not perfect but it surely is good enough to convince.
I wonder what would happen to the Touaregs in Syria now who fought for the former government because they found refugee in Syria before the current revolutions I am sure they will choose sides more than ever now based on certain tribes and choice of religion.
