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tal national - tantabara - fat cat - vinyl

New Copy

Genre: African

1. Tantabara
2. Belles Reines
3. Entente
4. Duniya
5. Akokas
6. Pama
7. Trankil
8. Aminiata

Contemporary African music that draws influence from traditional style and rock. Fast drums.. Hard hitting guitars and a variaty of vocalists are recorded here.

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Tal National is a band built on bringing people together. Their home country of Niger is split into a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities – Songhai, Fulani, Hausa, and Tuareg voices all vie for attention under their national banner, and all are represented in the vast membership of Tal National’s ranks. This gives the band’s music its own particular mash of ethnomusical touchstones, from the bounce of kora, highlife and afrobeat, to the dusting of Tuareg Blues and the roiling boil of Hausa percussion – they are truly their country’s best cultural emissaries.

Tantabara was recorded in their hometown of Niamey, Niger, again with Chicago engineer Jamie Carter at the controls. The band have always carved a huge sound out of limited resources, which means using a remote recording rig in a dusty makeshift studio and working with minimal recording equipment and musical instruments on the verge of disrepair. This all adds to the band’s communal spirit, though, and opening their home up as a studio means that everybody gets to be involved in the process. Over the 8 tracks on Tantabara, there are 8 different vocalists - 7 of whom are full time members of the band.

They are a self-described “rock band,” though their vision of rock may push well past what the West fences in around that term, and guitarist Almeida finds as much inspiration in trance as he does in rock’s embrace. The grooves are the backbone of the album, and the intent is to create a trance-state that overwhelms conscious thought and lets the listener be surrounded by the energy and emotion of Tal National. Brimming with the band’s complex, intense spirit, the album is a continuation of the balance of tradition and innovation that have driven their previous albums. It’s a joyous celebration and euphoric epiphany all in one complex package. We’d expect nothing less at this point from Tal National.