Every once in a while, you get the chance to hear an album that refuses to meet your expectations of what music should sound like, not because the band or artist is pushing boundaries, but because the culture that informed the record is completely different from the one you were born into.
Hoggar, the tenth studio record from the Tuareg band, Tinariwen, is just such an album. It’s hard to imagine a culture more different from the United States than that of the Tuareg, a nomadic people group that inhabits parts of the Sahara Desert in Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Niger. Tinariwen came of age musically amid rebellions and political unrest.
But for over three decades, Tinariwen has been active on the world music scene with a successful career playing a style of music that…

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

« »