Beulah Land

Tartit-Abacabok






Tartit are a prolific group of Tuareg refugees from Mali who, in addition to forming successful associations dedicated to encouraging and preserving the music and culture of Mali, building schools for Malian children, and economic opportunities for women, occasionally make hypnotic, funky, mind-altering music. The band itself consists of five women and four men, Fadimata Walett Oumar, Walett Oumar Zeinabou, Mama Walett Amoumine, Fatma Mohamedun, Tafa Al Hosseini, Mohamed Issa ag Oumar, Ag Mohamed Idwal, Amanou, and Mossa Ag Mohamed. They formed in 1995 in Burkina Faso in response to the severe economic, social, and politcal struggles they were enduring at the time. They've released three albums throughout their musical career, Amazagh, Ichchila, and Abacabok.

The majority of their music relies on stark electric bass figures and the Ngoni (electric guitar) improvisations on said figures. Also call-and-response vocal patterns, tinde drumming, and the most satisfyingly recorded hand claps you've ever heard in your life. The result has often been described as a sort of desert-blues, which I can't entirely argue against. Although I don't really agree that it's the best description for this music. I will cede that its powerfully trance-inducing properties are reminiscent of the late Ali Farke Toure, one of the most renowned musical figures in African popular music, and the reigning champion of this so-called "desert blues". Coincidentally, Tartit played multiple shows with Toure before his death in 2006.
I hear a myriad of distinct musical influences on Abacabok, often times in the same song. It's clearly music steeped in traditional Malian musical tendencies. But the songs seem to contain shadows of other more modern musical trends as well.

Highly recommended.