Tinariwen’s breakthrough album originally released in 2004, now remastered and repackaged with a bonus unreleased track, exclusive photos and brand-new liner notes. The first vinyl pressing is limited edition indigo vinyl - only 3000 copies worldwide and the download card provides 24-bit WAV. Amassakoul features songs from Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, Touhami Ag Alhassane. Tinariwen are Tuaregs, children of a nomadic Berber tribe who have roamed the Saharan desert for thousands of years. Over recent centuries, colonialism has seen the Tuareg’s ancestral territory partitioned into distinct countries - Mali, Algeria, Libya, Niger. This drawing of borders has turned the Tuareg into ishumar, a displaced people in search of a homeland lost to them. Tinariwen’s music – a blend of West African traditional music and electrified rock’n’roll – speaks directly to this feeling of longing: a sound that critics have called “desert blues”.

Tinariwen are a great example of the power of music, trading their guns for guitars, their hypnotic hooks achieve more than violence ever could. Tinariwen are not only masters of ‘desert blues’, they have also been credited with inventing a whole new musical style known as ‘Ishuma’ meaning ‘unemployed’. Tinariwen have so much brilliant music to offer, but this and The Radio Tisdas Sessions (also reissued this week) are both a great place to start.

FFO: Tamikrest, Ali Farka Touré, Imarhan, Songhoy Blues.

By Martha