Tikounen (2016)
12 tracks, 50 minutes
Bandcamp · Spotify · iTunes
When I saw Kel Assouf live for the first time at WOMAD in 2016, it was a breath of fresh air.
For a long time, the Tuareg guitar music that was so exciting when Tinariwen first crept onto the scene – seemingly direct from the heart of the Sahara desert with their loping grooves and tagelmust headdresses – had really lost its shine. There were just so many Tinariwen-alikes, none of whom came close to the original, and very little variation on the theme. Maybe there was a drum kit here, a little distortion there, but nothing mind-blowing. Even earlier on at the same WOMAD festival, Imarhan, who had been touted as the next big stars of this genre called essouf, just struck me as more of the same.
But then, Kel Assouf happened. Their sound was huge. Fronted by Anana Harouna brandishing a flying-V with relaxed ease and backed by a mix of Belgians and Nigeriens on drums, synths and bass, this was some of the heaviest punk blues I’d heard for a long time. It still had all of those elements so striking of Tuareg music – the forever repeating riffs on one chord, the camel-gait rhythms, the spacious pentatonic melodies – but it all came together with crashing cymbals, aggressive distortion and delays, and funky bass from the synth. There were also rhythms from further north, Morocco and Algeria, and organ that could have been straight from Billy Preston. They actually looked and sounded like they were having the time of their life. Yes! This was the kick up the arse that it needed to be!
Tikounen is the album that captures the heaviness and excitement of Kel Assouf the best, so far, but that may change next month: their first album in three years, Black Tenere, comes out at the end of February, so that’s one to keep your ears out for. But until then, this album will more than suffice – get it on, get it loud and get moshing!
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