Bleep

When Tinariwen emerged out of the Sahara with their debut album, few could have anticipated the global fervour that would shore up for their desert blues.

At the time, the music of the Tuareg people in northern Africa had a small, but growing international following as western listeners became more globally curious, but the Tuareg scene was long destined to etch a singular name for itself. Built off of pioneering contributions from the late Ali Farka Touré, the group fearlessly blended traditional West African music with guitar-shredding blues, a tradition that Tinariwen aligned with on their groundbreaking debut The Radio Tisdas Sessions.

Named after the local Tuareg station in Kidal where the group recorded their album, The Radio Tisdas Sessions arrived in 2001 as a warmly intimate introduction to Tinariwen and the hypnotising blues drifting out of the Sahara. Formed decades earlier as a party band before recruiting members during mandatory military training in the ‘80s, Tinariwen were already a respected collective with a regional following by the time they recorded their official debut. The decades of practice shows; instantly welcoming the listener by he album’s nearly eight-minute opener ‘Le Chant Des Fauves’. Tinariwen’s intricate guitar interplay and passionately delivered group choruses define Radio Tisdas’s sound at large.

Reissued for its twentieth anniversary with an unreleased bonus track, a revisit to Tinariwen’s debut couldn’t have come at a better time. The group has since cemented their status as icons in Africa’s rich music history. Tuareg music continues to push boundaries globally thanks to acts like Mdou Moctar and Bombino, both of whom claim Tinariwen as formative influences. The seeds of an influential group are already planted on Radio Tisdas, which remains as straightforward and stunning as when it first arrived two decades ago.