Tinariwen - Imidiwan: Companions

Rating:

* * * * *

Imidiwan

, the band's fourth album, is not as immediately catchy and enthralling as the excellent

Aman Iman: Water Is Life

from 2007, which was a breakthrough album of sorts, in that it gained them a wider popularity with its groove-laden desert blues rock.

The new album is more trancey, hallucinatory and, especially during the mid-section of the album, sparse and static.

However, they whip up the tempo and get swinging on

Lulla

and last track

Ere Tasfata Adounia

, which escalates into the album's most rock'n'roll moment.

Tracks like

Imazaghe N Adagh

, with its opening vocal mantra, that clicks into a head-nodding groove, before a steely and resolute guitar solo brings it to an end, transports you to the beautiful and barren place that these troubadours are from - even if you are on the back deck sipping a cold beer. It's magical.

Scott Kara