133: Ténéré, by Groupe Tinarwen

Groupe Tinarwen (Mali)
Ténéré (1993)
8 tracks, 39 minutes

You’ll notice I’ve not put up any download or streaming links up at the top, because there just aren’t any. This is a cassette from Tinariwen, recorded in 1992 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and released in 1993 for a West African, especially Tuareg, audience. That was eight years before they made their first international release, and this cassette fell into obscurity. It’s never been reissued in any capacity; the most I can really do is embed this YouTube video of the album’s opening track:

I actually did manage to find a download for the whole thing ages ago, but that seems to have disappeared now – get in touch if you want to hear the whole thing.

So what’s so special about this then, compared to the album Amassakoul that I wrote about in March, or any of their other six albums that have made them famous around the world? Well, just listen. Those albums don’t have drum machines, piano loops and layered synths all over them for a start. Nowadays, Tinariwen are known for their moody, stripped-back and atmospheric grooves; this mad cheesy production sounds completely bizarre in comparison and I absolutely love it.

Those production elements are only on the first side of the album, with the second four tracks being closer to that classic essouf sound – the mixture of Tuareg traditional music with elements of rock and Algerian raï that Tinariwen are believed to have invented – which gives an idea of how that sound evolved, but of course it’s those first four tracks that intrigue me the most.

I actually asked Justin Adams, producer of several of Tinariwen’s earliest international releases, about this particular tape a while ago. From what the band had told him, the keys and drum machines were the idea of the Ivorian producer tasked with making the album, as he felt it would make for a more attractive commercial product for that market. And I think that’s what I like about this album, it sort of explodes the rather popular idea that Tinariwen’s music is a sort of lost-in-time sound, a mummified ancestor to the blues that was discovered caked in desert sand; that their use of cheap and gnarly electric guitars was their only concession to the century as it existed outside of the Sahara. There’s no doubt that Tinariwen’s music draws on deep histories, but when they first became famous among the Tuareg it’s because they were essentially a pop band. Their lyrics were the most important thing to their Tamasheq-speaking audiences, but the way they played and produced their music was shaped by ideas on what would sell the most tapes. And when it came time to make records to sell abroad, their sound changed subtly to be most attractive to that market as well.

I can see why this album has gone unacknowledged by the band’s European/American record labels to this day – it does break down a part of the mythos that is, by now, sure to have been quite carefully curated, and let’s face it, it’s not really in keeping with the musical brand they’ve got going on nowadays. But I reckon if they reissued this tape, it would get people’s attention and sell well for that. Here’s hoping, at least.