Words escape me when I try to pinpoint the way Tinariwen’s music makes me feel---I can only imagine it must be something similar to the way these guys felt the first time they heard Hendrix records; that collision, of native Touareg tunes with rock-based guitar playing, is testament to the omnipotence of music. The story behind these guys is mindblowing (read it here: http://www.tinariwen.com/page/biography-1), and I’m personally endeared by this fact: at some point in every interview I’ve ever read with them, the music journalist takes a moment to note with awe the massive amount of marijuana or marijuana smoke (often both) present at said interview. This song, their reinvention of an old Tamashek tale of oppression, comes across particularly stony with the way they echo that old man’s chanting from speaker to speaker---magical stuff!!
