Blue Tuareg's come to Dublin from the desert

national | arts and media | press release Thursday June 17, 2004 18:46 by kahootz

Southern Sahararan group Tinariwen last night blew up a musical storm at Crawdaddy.

The sung poetry of this turly amazing Tuareg band calls for the political awakening of consciousness.

Speaking to indymedia, their lead singer said of how music unites and speaks from the heart.

The band also invited Irish people to the desert.



From http://tinariwen.calabashmusic.com/

“Forced from their nomadic life in the Sahara, they were fighters in the Touareg insurgency against the Malian government. So, the band formed in 1982 in Colonel Ghadaffi's rebel camps.

Radicalized by war and drought, Tinariwen invented a new style of music known as Tishoumaren, or music of the ishumar. Ishumar, which means unemployed, refers to a generation of young, enraged Tamashek exiles: people who left their stomping grounds for work after much repression and drought in Mali.

Tinariwen wanted to carry on traditional music, but in exile they could rarely find the 30 or more musicians necessary to play the style. They have combined traditional musical forms with a modern rebellious and radical rock sensibility -- traditional instruments such as the teherdent lute and shepherd flute were discarded in favor of the electric guitar, electric bass and drums.”