The tranquility and rejuvenating quality of Tinariwen's desert blues tunes is remarkable. That might sound a little hippie dippy - far-fetched, even - but the Tuareg Malian band's minimal music really does have that healing power.
Few bands have that ability, and even fewer can cast a sonic spell that will entrance you.
On fifth album Tassili, they have tried something different. While holed up in tents in a remote part of the Algerian desert, Tinariwen downed their electric guitars and recorded their parts on acoustic instruments, stripping their already spare sound back to its purest form. But then they let some of their Western music-making brothers loose on the songs. TV On the Radio's Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe are on the folkie blues mantra of Temere Taqqim Tossam, among other songs; in true New Orleans style the Dirty Dozen Brass Band add woozy and wayward squawks to Ya Messingah; and Wilco's mad genius Nels Cline is at his best on the head-writhing groove of opener Imidiwan Ma Tenam, which gets this album-long trance under way.
Not that these singers and players have changed the essence of Tinariwen's songs, because it never strays from their beautifully barren desert blues roots.
It's not as swinging and immediately alluring as the rockier Aman Iman: Water Is Life from 2007, but instead of getting your groove on, songs like the mesmerising Walla Illa are more likely to seduce you. So while Tassili is more gentle and serene, it remains intensely powerful.
