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Monday, February 16, 2009

Album Group Bombino’s Guitars From Agadez Vol. 2

Posted by on Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 8:20 AM

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The whereabouts of Tuareg guitar dynamo Oumara Moctar (Bombino) are currently unknown and his region, Agadez, has been severed from Niger; the only road connecting Agadez to the rest of the country contains numerous land mines. Against this sad backdrop, Sublime Frequencies co-founder Hisham Mayet secured Bombino’s group’s music during a trip to the Saraha Desert village in 2007 and shaped it into the beautiful artifact titled Guitars From Agadez Vol. 2.

The A-side features “Dry Guitar” (i.e., acoustic) songs recorded in the Ténéré desert. The material’s sprightly, indefatigable, spiritually uplifting—a desert blues of deep pathos. Spare and hypnotic, they seemingly have no beginnings or endings. Moctar’s voice is mellow, pleasant, and subtly pained. Peppy hand claps spur along each cut.

Mayet recorded the album’s five-track B-side live in Agadez. The song structures follow suit with the A-side’s output, but the guitars and bass are electric here. Group Bombino also bring it with more intensity. The mantric repetition and the highly torqued churn of these pieces links them to ostensibly unlikely artists like Hawkwind, Pärson Sound, Skullflower, and John Lee Hooker's Endless Boogie. This is hugely inspirational, vital music, tragic backstory or no.

The LP—pressed on 180gm vinyl in a one-time run of 1500—is sold out, but I’ve seen copies at some Seattle record shops. Hesitation is not advised.

(The only video of Group Bombino on YouTube.)

 

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this record is great. sublime frequencies is easily the best label in seattle.
Posted by honcho on February 16, 2009 at 12:17 PM

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