Customer Reviews

Adrar Des Iforas: Journey Thru Tuareg Country

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I was in in a used record store one day and stumbled into this CD by accident. Guaranteed to make your ears tingle. If I could buy one CD to give to my friends, this would be an excellent choice.

This disc is the product of a group of French musicians, under the name "Le Chauffeur est dans le pre", on a journey to the heart of Malian Touareg country, Adrar des Iforas, to play with the local musicians in the area. The booklet is somewhat uninformative about what is going on both musically and collaboratively. The record features the guitar work of three Touareg musicians, Moussa ag Sarit, Yaya Samake, and Kerdou. The first half of the album has interesting Toureg songs that are somewhat unpolished and not fully developed, giving the album a field recording feel. Most tracks are the guitar-style of Touareg music, but a few do not have guitar and are likely more traditional. As the album progresses the influence of Le Chauffeur becomes more pronounced, although not too distracting. (However, the first appearance of the tuba is startling.)
Two songs near the end of the album feature the Star Boys, a competent trio of Songhay rappers from the town of Gao. The penultimate track seems to be a studio creation from the recordings made on the journey, while the final track, a Touareg flute with French speaking over it, is unfortunate.
For the most part, this is an enjoyable album but it is not as good as most other Touareg albums.