Customer Reviews
World music? No. Just great music! - By: M. G. Wilson, 17 Jun 2008 
I'm no world music expert, but from time to time something comes along from outside the English speaking world that demands my attention. 'Aman Iman' is such an album. These Touareg musicians from the Western Sahara create a music whose 'otherness' is obvious, yet which is immediately accessible to western sensibilities. Their music evokes the solitude of the desert & the loneliness of exile, & yet is life affiriming & joyous. It's a thrumming, hypnotic, even foot-stomping sound, not obviously African, with arabic influences & hints of the blues, & deserves a wider audience.
Good stuff - By: Ajg Savage, 17 May 2008 If, like me, you're starting out in the great savannas of world music & have seen this album flashed around on music sites, then can i say this is great stuff & much more entertaining than several cd's that are offered at the moment (Apart from orchestra boabab, possibly) Enjoy.
Bouncing Sahara rythms - By: Christian Jongeneel, 24 Jan 2008 Decidedly funky, a Jimmy Hendrix like lead guitar - you wouldn't believe Tinariwen comes straight out of the Sahara desert. This is an amazing record, sounding perfectly modern at times, only to remind you immediately of its roots.
What Yothu Yindi did for Australian aboriginal music, Tinariwen does for the Tuareg, fully embracing western instruments & using these to explore new angles on their traditional songs. Amazing, I repeat, amazing.
Excellent - By: Music Fan, 22 Oct 2007 Saw them play Womad a few years ago, but just picked up the new record. Excellent
Back to the roots - By: David Johnson, 04 Oct 2007 A gurgle, a sigh, a breath & the aching scorched-earthed voice of Tinariwen's assigned leader, Ibrahim,"Abaraybone," breaks into voice. Following him come a seething, organic mass, chants & callls, spurred on by guitars that split flame, this is the music, these are the roots from which we came. This is the desert.
Tinariwen are the blues, they are the soul, they are Zeppelin before Zeppelin. We love this relentless, pulsating record because it reminds us what we once were as a species: a society, fraught rebel musicians.
Take this record as one whole but if I was pushed I'd say my favourite tracks are,"Matadjem Yinmixan,"so bouncy & spirited you just never want it to end & the incredibly earthy-sounding,"Ahimana." As is so often the case with world music releases these days the liner notes are absolutely impeccable, offering a transcript & an explanation of the songs in English. Producer Justin Adams also gives a candid account of how he literallly stumbled upon the band in December 2000: the rest is history. It is perhaps worth noting when you listen to this that Tinariwen have been around for seventeen years, many of their recordings as yet unable on CD. I for one have only very recently jumped on the bandwagon. I won't be getting off.
