Tamikrest come to The Kazimier this November
Promising a night like no other, Africa Oyé present Tamikrest at The Kazimier this November. Getintothis’ Adam Forster fills us in on what to expect from the Mali Award winners.
Put simply, Mali’s Tamikrest blend the traditional music and instrumentation of the Tuareg people with a Western base of bluesy, muscular psychedelic rock. The result a synthesis that feels like a Hendrix–Knopfler love-child just wandered in from the Sahara.
Drawing justifiably from their native fore-fathers Tinariwen, Tamikrest sing in Tamashek and weave deep-grooved bass and crunchy overdrive guitar around the djembé and a range of percussion. Understated virtuosity and fiercely visceral expression in tandem has led Songlines Music Awards to crown them ‘Best Group of the Year 2014’ and speculation is rife on the prospect of a fourth studio album as early as next year, again under Glitterhouse Records.
A full band count comes to nine, five or six more than a ‘traditional Western set-up’ but all the richer for it as Tamikrest remain first choice at some of Europe’s most prolific music and cultural festivals such as Budapest’s Sziget.
Their Liverpool debut, to take place at The Kazimier and in association with Africa Oyé, is in support of their latest LP Chatma from back in October 2013- a critically-acclaimed gem which Mojo typified as ‘With trance-inducing drones, Nashville-evoking steel guitars and space-rock solos, this is the desert-blues album for fans of Can and Pink Floyd to sink their teeth into.’
More perfect an aural concoction can surely not be imagined for anyone who plans to attend the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia and loves Africa Oyé. Saturday 8th November at The Kazimier (tickets £14.50).
