- Ilana: The Creator is the fifth album, but first true studio album, from Mdou Moctar - guitarist and singer from Niger. Mdou is of the nomadic Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert - a culture which these days, if people have heard of it, it's as likely as anything to be because of its guitar music.
Sahel Sounds, the label releasing this album, does an excellent job bringing Tuareg sounds out of the desert to the rest of world. They are not alone however. After the slow building success of genre pioneers Tinariwen, in the last few years artists like Tamikrest and Bombino have also gained the attention of the broader music world.
Of these Mdou Moctar is sonically closest to Bombino - fast paced Tuareg rock, adding a few Hendrix style guitar heroics and mixing traditional percussion with funky drumbeats.There is a bit of tradition in Mdou's music, but it certainly shouldn't be filed away as some kind of ethnographic study. This is rock music, made by someone finding joy like so many of us in loud music and distorted guitars.
In fact, Mdou's previous album was the soundtrack to a movie he also starred in - the first ever feature length Tuareg film, a remake of Purple Rain whose title translates into English as Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red In It. That classic tale of a boy dreaming to be a rockstar will give you some idea of what this album is about. The uninhibited fretwork of a song like Ashet Akal or the epic Tarhatazed is another indicator. Closing track Tumastin is a lovely slow desert blues reminiscent of Tinariwen; but mostly it's a pretty frenetic workout of an album, full of epic guitar playing and polyrhythmic drumming.
For those familiar with Tuareg music, Ilana: The Creator is distinctive as a kind of psychedelic hard rock injection into the mix. It might even be the heaviest Tuareg album ever made. For those unfamiliar, Mdou Moctar is not a bad place to start - his guitar playing and melodies, accompanied by a very tight band, have made another reminder that the English-speaking world does not have a monopoly on great rock music.
- Andy Paine.