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Tinariwen: Aman: Water Is Life

Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, February 2007

WHEN THEY FIRST formed in the Libyan guerilla camps of the late ‘70s, Tinariwen referred to their music simply as "guitar". And no wonder. Electric guitars in the north African desert sound different from ordinary electric guitars. Like the bluesy modal drones of the late Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen’s guitars are crabbed, dusty, skittering around single bleak chords.

Total word count of piece: 1628

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