Introducing Etran Finatawa: some of the slickest and most beautiful electric guitar imaginable.
By Bruce Elder, reviewer Sydney Morning Herald
August 1, 2006
Artist: Etran Finatawa
Genre: Folk/World
Label: World Music Network/MRA
The deserved success of Tinariwen, the "poet guitarists of the southern Sahara", has guaranteed interest in Etran Finatawa.
This is another extended group (10 members in all - four Tuareg tribesmen and six from the Wodaabe ethnic group) with the same nomadic desert roots and love of mixing their driving traditional music with some of the slickest and most beautiful electric guitar imaginable.
Just listen to the guitar solos on A Dunya and you'll be instantly seduced by the beauty of this music which has its roots in the West African country of Niger. Marvel at Iledeman and in the driving 12-bar structure you can hear the real roots of American blues.
And, in the case of Aliss, there are echoes of the compulsive music which made Tinariwen one of the highlights of Womadelaide in 2004. This is a genuinely exciting addition to the broad canvas that is West African music.
Source: www.smh.com.au/news/cd-re...116848.html
CD available on: www.amazon.com/gp/product...552-9236819
More detailed article in Independent on:
enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi...6.ece
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Netherlands
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Thanks Sanaag.
The artical in the Independent is really good. He talks about the nomads way of life being threatened. The music is much like Tinariwin.
"Nomads suffer now. There isn't enough water or good pasture for the animals. Grain is expensive. A majority of people prefer to live in the towns, because you can find food there, and water from a tap, and soap to wash yourself. But in the towns we suffer, too. We can only find menial jobs as watchmen and caretakers, for 10,000 CFA (about £10) a month. We have to sell our cattle and camels to pay debts."
"In my opinion, I can't talk about the others, we're in danger of losing our nomadic culture," Ghalitane declares. "Education poses a huge dilemma for us. We need to educate our children, but once we're gone, what will they become... bureaucrats and administrators. They won't go back to the bush. And the desert is growing every day. Animals can't eat sand. Once sand gets into the stomach of a cow, that's it. She dies. There's nothing you can do."
It seems Etran Finatawa are on a mission of far greater urgency that just making us dance to their gorgeous grooves. -
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Well said, Carleigh. What is unique about these gorgeous grooves is that they (could) transport us into marvellous and challenging circles around which we dance and thank, think and act. Not necessarily in this order of succession, but all sequences are fine…
Take a joyful ride to the desert on: www.youtube.com/watch AND www.youtube.com/results
Also wonderful photos on Flicker if you do a search with ‘tuareg, Wodaabe, Fulani etc.’
Today, 9 august, is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. A moment of reflective silence, please, for the nomadic tribes and other indigenous people’s whose lifes are at stake: www.un.org/esa/socdev/u...lday2006.html
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