Akh Issudar

Akh Issudar

This month, the Malian group Terakft's second album, Akh Issudar (the title refers to an old Tourageg proverb- Aman iman, akh issudar - Water is life, milk is survival) will sweep onto the U.S. scene like a searing sirocco fresh off the Sahara. Their keening, scratchy singing veers off onto curvy, Isalmic-flavored tangents and passages of talking blues, discursive chanting, and raucous call-and-response, punctuated by wailing, cries, ululations and even an underlying, buzzing drone. Note how the chorus matches the sinuous lead vocal note-for-note on Islegh Teghram. But the multi-layered guitars crown all, with their rich, round, sunsually tinny chords and lead riffs, inexora ble, multi-layered and impulsive. They evoke the Mississippi Delta at high noon, T Rex and teh early Stones, garage bands without number, and even the late, great Ali Farka Toure, but with ornate, back-leaning rhythms that stride, limp, twirl, and spring ahead at the speed of light. The closing instrumental interpaly on Amdagh is mind-boggling but only one of many such highlights. Wielding their guitars like icy-hot torches of change and enlightenment, these indigo-swathed musicians, masked to their hawk-like eyes, have fashioned a potent, blues-like sound that makes the hips itchy - it's impossible to stand still around this music !