At Pioneer Works
Sahel Sounds (46 mins)
Unique among the thriving Tuareg guitar band scene, three of the four members of Les Filles de Illighadad are women – hence their name – and they bring the traditional women’s tende music into play as well as the standard assouf style. After two successful albums on Sahel Sounds, their third is a live offering via the Brooklyn arts space Pioneer Works.
As for their sound, you know it, you love it: it's that Tuareg guitar groove! Les Filles are a small ensemble, with three electric guitars and calabash percussion; their lack of bass gives an unusual, but not unpleasant, soundscape that is expansive without feeling particularly dense. Their music is very self-assured – no effects on the clean electric guitars, no solos except those that develop naturally from the repeating patterns, and none of the bombast that characterises some other Tuareg rock groups. Once they hit the rhythm and the occasional brain-melting blues note, they don’t need fireworks because they have the whole force of the desert behind them, and the audience responds in turn.
At Pioneer Works is a solid set of superior grooves played with stylish confidence, even if it’s not necessarily the most exciting album you’ll ever hear.