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Critical Praise for Abacabok
"The African record of the year: A male-led, woman-dominated
group of Saharan Tuaregs, Tartit were conceived by Belgian
record men and sound more Arab than African, though they
really just sound Tuareg. This new album hops up the drones
and chants of 2000's Ichichili with faster tempos
and the occasional western rhythm instrument. Eerie proof
if you need it that Islam and its music comes in many
forms."
-Robert Christgau, Rolling Stone
"An entirely mesmerizing set by a Tuareg group whose membership
slightly favours women. (It's noted that the men of Tartit,
playing stringed instruments, are veiled, whereas the
women are not.) The loping grooves and spidery guitar
figures are reduced here to the barest, most powerful
essence, as though this nine member group was a sub-Sahelian
version of ESG"
-WIRE
"Congotronics producer Vincent Kenis hit the
Sahara earlier this year to capture a different kind of
trance music performed by this desert blues nontet. The
group, like fellow Tuareg rockers Tinariwen, formed in
a refugee camp, but their music is more cyclical than
that of their more well-known counterparts. The band's
five women play percussion while the four men play electric
and acoustic guitars. Everybody sings. "Ansari" is a captivating
piece of music that trades verses lead by a solo male
voice for huge choral moments, and the rhythmic dynamics
are excellent, balancing stop-time passages with jumping
beats driven by handclaps. There are two jaw-dropping
guitar solos, and neither break the song's hypnotic rhythmic
momentum. It's amazing how rooted to geography music can
sound, and this music somehow is the Sahara, with towering
dunes roiled by wind, and the arid, empty expansiveness
unique to that part of the world."
-Pitchforkmedia.com
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