Bombino- Azel (2016)

Bombino- Azel (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

From the opening snake like guitar lines of Bombino's new record Azel, it's obvious that the listener is into a quite different type of trip, Akhar Zaman, unless you are familiar with Tuareg desert blues, swings in a way no western music swings like, is wilder and freer, and although coming from the hot desert lands, is ironically refreshing, displaying a quite engaging cosmic flow, for the slower and placid Iwaranagh, Bombino snd company sound like a blues tinged version of Bob Marley (Tuareggae?), soul uplifting and skillful, dodging the language barriers with a beautiful universal reaching melody.

You can fully enjoy Bombino's six string wizardry on the predominantly acoustic Inar, in which precise finger picking by Omara Moctar aka Bombino builds carefully and with full detail the piece, but is in Tamiditine Tarhanam with its powerful rhythm section where Bombino rocks with cheerful power, it's a compact little ditty with a fluid melody, again, it quickly transmit feel-good sense, and that's precisely a big part of the charm behind this recording, it's positive vibes despite the context the world is living specially when coming to middle east matters.

The Tuareg people have proven these past years how amazingly they have adapted blues based rock climbing into their culture, to the point where it has become a world reference and a big influence in all kind of musicians, avant ones like Radiohead, retro rockers like The Black Keys and classic rock ones like the enormous Robert Plant each one of them have accepted this blues coming from the nomadic tribes of the Sahara, just like the blues from the Mississippi Delta they once embraced so enthusiastically.

Iyat Ninhay concentrates in Moctar's talent as guitarist, and what a talent it is capable of creating sweeping guitar lines that easily transmits emotions and that helps to create quick connections with the man and his mystic, Timidiwa is a solid lesson of how true daring modern rock could sound, fresh and really free of clichés, playing with tempos and being open about emotions, it's simple and direct and that makes the final message even more powerful.

Record in New York, Azel is an apt and fiery new step in the career of Bombino for global music domination is a hard trip for Bombino, whose music searches for unity and global communion, in the middle of a world that is in part looking for division and deglobalization.