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Bamako Nights captures the incendiary genius of Lobi Traoré, a soulful singer/songwriter and blazing electric guitarist of Mali, who died too young - just 49 years old - in 2010. Lobi produced five studio albums during his career, as well as four live releases, including the solo acoustic session Rainy Season Blues (Glitterhouse 2010). But Bamako Nights offers the deepest and most intimate record of this artist’s astounding power on stage in a small Bamako nightclub.

In 1995, the Bar Bozo was a unique destination. Mali’s democracy was just a few years old, and people were finding new ways to exercise freedom. The bar was an unglamorous, downtown nightspot, dark and often crowded. It didn’t cater to elites, but working people, who came to drink and dance and enjoy a live band long into the night. Lobi Traore was still emerging as a popular artist in Bamako. His earthy blend of Bambara roots and edgy electric guitar, and his philosophical songs of social life and the challenges rural people face in the city, were made to order for Bar Bozo. No wonder he packed the place on a weekly basis.

Lobi had begun recording albums by that time, and performing in Europe with an acoustic ensemble. But at Bar Bozo, he and his small electric ensemble were developing a new, rawer sound, one that would make Lobi a staple of Bamako’s live scene, and a legend of African blues celebrated around the world. You can hear in this smoldering session Lobi’s joy at having recently acquired a flanger pedal. His solos build to soaring, ecstatic heights, as unhinged as anything in African rock since.  

The set starts out slow and meditative with “Ni Tugula Mogo Mi Ko,” conjuring a trance atmosphere that Lobi elevates systematically with his keening vocal and eloquent picking. You can almost feel the weight of a sweltering Bamako night as Lobi forcefully guides his band though musical catharsis. By the time they kick into high gear on “Sigui Nyongon Son Fo,” the weight has lifted and spirits are flying. 

It’s hard to say enough about Lobi as a guitar stylist. His sound echoes older Malian pentatonic guitarists, notably the iconic Zani Diabate, whom Lobi accompanied briefly. And there are clear rock echoes; Lobi was a fan of AC/DC’s Angus Young! But in the end, Lobi’s guitar voice is his own, unmistakable, deeply informed by tradition and graced with sparkling personal epiphanies - even with the flanger set to 110%.
A few weeks after this recording was made, Bamako authorities closed down the Bar Bozo, and Lobi had to move his joyful party to an obscure venue on the outskirts of town. Bamako Nights is a time capsule recording. It evokes an artist, a time, and a place that came together with amazing potency, and can never be recreated.

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Lobi Traoré - Sigui nyongon son fo

Liverecording of wonderful Lena Willikens playing alongside Tin Man & Blind Observatory at the Official Opening Party of Humboldthain Club on October 19th 2013.
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Humboldthain Tapes - Lena Willikens (Cómeme | Köln)

KOMA + BONES SPRING 09 DJ MIX

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soul assasins remix

4. Jaa Jaa Tori Narashi

An unreleased track from our "You Can Be Special Too" era.

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Evil Nine - Burn It To The Ground [2004] **FREE DOWNLOAD**

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Tamikrest means “crossing” in the language of the Kel Tamashek, a traditionally nomadic Saharan people that are commonly referred to as the Tuaregs. It is an apt name for a band that so successfully merges the values of their timeless culture with the sounds and visions they have encountered on a headlong journey to the concert stages and ipods of the world. 

Since the band emerged onto the international scene four years ago with their debut album “Adagh”, they have been in constant motion, moving between the Sahara and Europe as though these places were next-door neighbors. All the while, during this same time period, their homeland has suffered increasingly profound and catastrophic events. Originally hailing from Kidal, in the northeast of Mali, as the result of ongoing war, persecution and political collapse most of the band now lives in exile in Algeria. 

These last years have been intensely vivid for Tamikrest, defined as they have been by both tragic sadness (families and friends turned refugees, the brutal imposition of Sharia law in their hometown) and collective growth (their musical dreams building one upon another). 

Their new album “Chatma”, their third, deftly navigates these experiences and fashions them into a fully persuasive and poetic musical document. The album is filled with sober reflection, moral indignation, musical experimentation, cultural celebration and the kick of rock and roll.

“Chatma” is also Tamikrest’s first album to be wholly written around a defined theme. In Tamashek “Chatma” means “Sisters” and the band has dedicated the album in their own words to: “the courage of the Tuareg women, who have ensured both their children's survival and the morals of their fathers and brothers.” 

The opening track “Tisnant an Chatma (The suffering of my sisters)” is a heartbreaking homage: « Who can estimate the suffering felt by the soul / of one who sees her sisters exhausted from waiting/ of one who sees her sisters exhausted from waiting between countries, in deep distress /and daily oppression? « 

Fittingly for an album so lyrically evocative, “Chatma “ also delivers Tamikrest's most wide-screen and wide-ranging sonic statement to date. The infectious, sing-along rock stylings of "Imanin bas zihoun", the acoustic seduction of “Adounia tabarat”, the Pink Floyd influenced montage "Assikal" and the lush, melancholy ambiance of the albums finale, “Timtar”, all add up to a sustained audio adventure. Echoes of dub, blues, psychedelia, funk and even art-rock are seamlessly weaved by Tamikrest into their increasingly individual take on the Tuareg musical tradition. 

And on an album where the title translates as "Sisters", it makes perfect sense that this time around we hear the full emergence of the haunting voice of female vocalist Wonou Walet Sidati in tandem with lead vocalist Ousmane Ag Mossa. A new guitarist, Paul Salvagnac has also joined the band, bringing with him fresh textures and possibilities.

Contemporary Tuareg music has produced several unforgettable albums in recent years and "Chatma" certainly deserves to be ranked with these. But one also gets the sense, when listening to “Chatma” that there is something uniquely innovative and exploratory about Tamikrest's musical quest and that at last they have stepped into a wide-open space of their own.
 
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Tamikrest - Imanin bas zihoun

Manouby is a breakbeat electronica project rooted in rave culture, exploring hypnotic flow through rolling rhythms, sampled fragments, glowing textures, and raw but playful energy. Old records, sounds, and structures are broken down and reassembled—turning memory into momentum.

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