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Tallawit Timbouctou - Takamba WhatsApp 2018 EP (Sahel Sounds, 2018)

"Beamed directly from Timbouctou, Mali to Portland, USA via WhatsApp". This is terhardent (like a rough-sounding lute) player Agali Ag Amoumine's group Tallait Timbouctou. Takamba is music "played on traditional guitar (tamashek: teheredent), with a remarkable distinctive rhythm tapped out on a calabash and accompanied by a beautiful ghostly dance". I guess we miss out on the full effect of the dance but the music, two long pieces in accompaniment with Oumar Kane (bass tehardent) and Ibrahim Dicko (calabash), is hypnotic enough stuff. Slow-paced and groovey with vocals from Amoumine and loping, head-nodding calabash rhythms. Nice record, love the cover art too.

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