Tinariwen: Aman: Water Is Life

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.