This was alchemy. How do you create a stomping joyous rhythmic explosion out of the old rock’n’roll ingredients? Two guitars, a bass and drums.
Etran De L’Air got here in the nick of time. Their flight was delayed. We got constant updates (“They’re at King’s Cross!” “Hurray”). They piled out of their van, tuned up and were up and running ten minutes later. No Lana Del Ray timekeeping histrionics here. These boys from Agadez knuckled down and took care of business.
It’s hard to pin down Etran’s sound. They’re of Touareg ethnicity, a Berber nomadic group that inhabit sub-Saharan Africa. If you are familiar with Tinariwen and their smokey slow desert blues, then you’ll recognise the guitar attack. Etran are more joyous though, upbeat and danceable. They’re part of the tradition of wedding bands, working out of Agadez in Niger. It’s on the trade route, with caravans of salt passing through, married with the local uranium trade. Old meets new.
It’s home to a number of musicians who have got exposure in recent years in the Western music scene. Bombino and Mdou Moctar are the two most obvious examples. The latter one plaudits for his Afrique Victime album which featured in Pitchfork, the New York Times and the Guardian’s top ten records of 2021.
The Etran De L’Air sound is slightly mellower on record but is electrifying live. Underpinned by one of the best rhythm sections that I’ve seen in a long time, the combination of a bass groove and a drummer that has the most incredible ability to generate velocity with a single snare drum. The twin guitars bring the interlocking melody with occasional joyous vocals.
It’s all about the feet though. The guys are wearing traditional sandals and can’t stand still. This movement transmits instantly to the crowd and the place is rocking immediately. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such unbridled joy at a gig. What is telling is just how natural and engaged this is. London can be quite a reserved place as far as live music is concerned. People are a little too cool for school. Etran De L’Air cut through this and it was a joy to behold.
Etran are signed to Sahel Sounds. They specialise in African music, the founder Christopher Kirkley having travelled to Africa in 2008 to see Afel Boucoum, who UK listeners may be familiar with from his work with Damon Albarn. Much of their music is recorded in the field, often on mobile phones. The driving energetic nature of much of label’s material often trumps the lo-fi nature of the recordings.
Sahel Sounds generously offer their catalogue for Pay What You Want every Bandcamp Friday (usually the first Friday in every month). It’s a great affordable opportunity to explore their music, and obviously I’d recommend starting with Etran De L’Air.
There are three Etran releases, all of them offering something different.
The first is the appropriately named No.1. Recorded by Sahel’s Kirkley in their family compound in 2014. It celebrates the end of the rainy season and you can hear their neighbours join the party as the band warm-up, clapping and whooping as the energy builds. It is hardly audiophile quality but this doesn’t matter – the vibrancy just explodes everything.
They’ve followed this with this year’s Agadez, a homage to their home city. It is recorded at their home on a mobile recording studio. The album benefits from the more modern technology and also sounds like it draws on wider influences from other African countries and ethnicities – blues from Mali, Soukous music from Congo and Hausa bar bands. The guys often wear traditional Hausa alashos when they perform, a long turban that wraps around the head and neck. They didn’t wear them at Cafe Oto (probably due to just jumping out of a van 10 minutes before they kicked off the gig) but as they’re traditionally worn for ceremonies and rites of passage, the band are often seen in them (such as at Leeds a couple of nights later).
Agadez is certainly a more approachable record but if you want the closest comparison to what I heard at Cafe Ito, I’d start with their recent Live in Seattle EP. This captures the energy, the groove and the rat-tat-tat of the most magnificent snare sound. The two tracks have Abindi, Allamine, Illa and Albhabid in full flow playing extended versions of tracks from this year’s album.
At a time when people are wondering what you can do with the old traditional guitar, bass and drums line up, when rock’n’roll seems to have run out of ideas and energy, four guys from Agadez show a possible future, beyond the confines of Western music.
And my god, it’s funky.
BlackCountryRock 