Bombino: Agadez (Cumbancha)

 |   |  1 min read

Bombino: Adounia/Life
Bombino: Agadez (Cumbancha)

The biggest growth industry in world music in the past decade seems to have come out of the sub-Sahara where electric and electrifying bands have emerged, many of them with rather remarkable backstories of nomadic lifestyles, and of being being freedom fighters and boy soldiers. 

As more and more albums of Sahara blues emerge from great bands like Tinariwen and Etran Finatawa and the younger off-shoots Tamikrest, Terakaft and others, it is increasingly possible to distinguish between styles.

Young singer-guitarist Omara Moctar – aka Bombino – is perhaps a little unlike many of his predecessors in that has been self-schooled in Hendrix, blues and rock.

However he doesn't go the whole Voodoo Chile or sky-scaling soloing route but instead has incorporated those influences into the traditional rhythms of his region -- and then he's added in place a snappy funk feel.

The six minute-plus Tar Hani has a hard-to-shake groove, as does the nine minute Iyat Idounia Ayasahen. He also does a nice line in trance-like pieces (Adounia), and the irrepressibly catchy Kammou Taliat and joyous hand-clap of Tenere should be blasting from your stereo come summer days.

Not everything is so persuasive (neither Azamane nor the five minute Tigrawahi Tikma establish the trance mood effectively or rise above their groove) but the best here is as good as it gets in desert blues and if you've come here because of those important namechecks above then there are plenty of rewards here – albeit cooler and less passionate than what some have been delivering.

Like the idea of desert blues? Then here's your starting point, and just follow the links. See you again in a few months.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

Various: Musica Negra in the Americas (Network/Soutbound)

Various: Musica Negra in the Americas (Network/Soutbound)

Some years ago the estimable Network label released the groundbreaking Desert Blues collection of music from the Sahara region, a superb double disc in a beautiful and informative long-form... > Read more

WOMAD NEW ZEALAND 2013: When the world comes to town

WOMAD NEW ZEALAND 2013: When the world comes to town

Time for all good citizens of the global village to get their passports stamped at yet another Womad New Zealand, once more in the beautiful site at Taranaki, New Zealand. Over three days in... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE BEATLES. LIVE AT THE STAR-CLUB, HAMBURG, GERMANY 1962, CONSIDERED (1977): Twist and shout, shimmy and shake

THE BEATLES. LIVE AT THE STAR-CLUB, HAMBURG, GERMANY 1962, CONSIDERED (1977): Twist and shout, shimmy and shake

The recording is of ridiculously low quality – just a reel-to-reel tape set up on table in a club with a single microphone pointed at the stage – and there has always been some debate... > Read more

Ayam Pongteh (Chicken and Potato Stew, Malaysian style)

Ayam Pongteh (Chicken and Potato Stew, Malaysian style)

In late 2007 I spent a couple of weeks travelling around Malaysia -- and notably went to Melaka, the food capital of the country where Baba Nyonya food is a local speciality. Baba Nyonya is the... > Read more