Kel Tamasheq

World music’s love affair with Touareg guitars continues with the fourth album from Terakaft, formed as an off-shoot of Tinariwen in 2001. Led by former Tinariwen singer-guitarist Liya Ag Ablil (aka Diarra), the group is now a trio with his guitarist nephews Sanou Ag Ahmed and Abdallah Ag Ahmed. They’re augmented by percussion from Mathias Vaguenez, various members of Lo’Jo and French slide guitarist Jean¬Louis Livenais. The circle is completed by Justin Adams, who has produced both Tinariwen and Lo’Jo albums, and is accredited here with production and playing ‘space guitar’.

Adams’ deft touches do much to raise the album above being just another Touareg guitar record – of which there are currently enough to rival the post-Buena Vista Social Club flood of Cuban releases in the late 90s. The basic electric sound is great, but the single¬note guitar lines, throbbing bass and clattering percussion in lurching time signatures patented by Tinariwen are now a familiar formula. Adams knows this too and encourages the Touareg trio to look beyond the desert’s endless horizon. Lo’Jo’s female vocalists Nadia and Yamina Nid El Mourid take ‘Aima Ymaima’ north in the direction of an upbeat Maghreb/Arabic dance tune. The sparse ‘Idja Seman’ finds Diarra singing affectingly over an acoustic guitar, before he’s joined by what sounds likes Adams’ aforementioned space guitar. ‘Imad Halan’ has a Bo Diddley beat, in which one again detects the producer’s influence. It’s highly recommended, of course: has there ever been a bad Touareg guitar record?