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Imarhan - https://imarhan.bandcamp.com

Though the backbone of Imarhan’s music is based in the traditional rhythms and flourishes of Tamasheq wedding bands and the Assouf music pioneered by Tinariwen, Imarhan’s songs are thoroughly contemporary, bridging the past and future. On “Assossam” they sing together in one voice of the frustrations of the Tuareg people in post-colonial Southern Algeria, economically disenfranchised by their government as money and power are concentrated in Algiers two thousand miles to the north. “Adar Newlan” touches on the struggles of the young people of Tamanrasset: “The sons of my country are exhausted,” sings Sadam in Tamasheq, referencing oppressive laws that end up imprisoning many young men who are forced to work while struggling to simply survive. But still they draw on ancestral texts, such as on “Tindjatan,” which tells the story of a great defeat of a Tuareg community during a war before French colonization, calling for bravery and solidarity, even in the face of ruin, as guitars trace circular patterns over insistent hand claps. “You must be in solidarity with your people at all costs, until the end,” says Sadam. This wisdom, like the music, becomes meaningful when passed down again and again, made new by each successive generation.

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