Group Inerane is a guitar-rock band from Niger's Tuareg area that's part of a late-breaking wave of acts from along the Sahara that have been filed, in the main, as "desert blues." It's true that Inerane's music often earns that appellation, at least on musical terms; blues and traditional music figure heavily into its catalog on the Seattle raw-internationalist label Sublime Frequencies. But the fetching "Tamidit In Aicha" has little in common with the rough power of an Etran Finatawa, or the bristling edges and casual hugeness of a Tinariwen.
"Tamidit In Aicha" is slighter and sweeter: Think of it as a kind of jangle-pop tune. The guitar sways lightly, while the drums are busy but remain in thrall to a straight-ahead beat. It's raw and scrawny-sounding — the album was recorded live, and you can tell — but it's also pulsing with life and good cheer, like the best moments on a U.S. college station back when bedroom-label seven-inch singles were experiencing a surge. "Tamidit In Aicha" is the kind of record you might hear slotted between the Vulgar Boatmen and early Built to Spill, had it come the right DJ's way.
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