Tinariwen Amassakoul CD

With several of its members involved in the Tuareg rebellion for autonomy in the early '90s, politically outspoken and social conscious celebrated Tuareg collective harnessed a new fieriness leading up to the release of Amassakoul in 2004.

'Amassakoul 'N'Ténéré' opens the album seismically with a single drum and handclaps, especially considering the featherlight percussion across their 2001 debut The Radio Tisdas Sessions. The song's lyrics also take a deceptively heavy approach, detailing a lonesome traveler in the desert that could be read as a metaphor for the Tuareg people's nomadic state after their ancestral lands were colonised. Tinariwen's second album is full of countless moments of subtle power, exploring the band's politics and beliefs while expanding on the desert blues sound that launched them onto an international stage.

'Chet Boghassa' is a prime example, employing flashes of guitar solos and jubilant group vocals as the band recount the liberation of a village during rebellion. Amassakoul also acts as a dissection of the band's influences, bordering on psychedelic abandon with the riotous 'Oualahila Ar Tesninam' before conjuring a haunting folk song ('Alkhar Dessouf') and closing the album with a droning meditation ('Assoul'). Considered in years since as the band's breakthrough record and an influence on younger Tuareg acts, Amassakoul captures Tinariwen becoming unafraid to realise their potential as storytellers from an age of rebellion.