Tal National

Tal National (Niger)

By the time Tal National reached international acclaim with 2013’s Kaani, the band’s first release outside of Niger, they had spent more than a decade crisscrossing their native country, usually on dirt pathways through the Sahara, playing epic five-hour sets seven days a week, selling their CDs on street corners and roundabouts. They became Niger’s most popular band, with songs constantly blasted on national television and cell phones everywhere. Western audiences and critics quickly embraced the band’s singular and finely-honed sound. NPR’s assessment was that “There’s no way you won’t dance to this one!” At their core, that’s Tal National’s intent, to make the people dance. With their new album, Tantabara (2018), the band continue their ongoing quest to translate that energy to tape, bottling the party for personal use.

Niger borders Nigeria, Mali, and Ghana. Collected within this former French colony can be found Songhai, Fulani, Hausa, and Tuareg populations, all of whom are represented in the membership of Tal National. As such, the nation enjoys a greatly varied mix of cultures and ethnicities, all richly steeped in music. It is no stranger to highlife, kora, and afrobeat musics while giving the world Tuareg blues and a unique brand of hip hop. In Tal National’s music can be heard the rolling 12/8 rhythms in the Hausa’s fuji percussion, the pensive aridity of the Tuareg’s assouf, and the exquisite griot guitar of Mali’s Songhai, all delivered with virtuoso precision and unrelenting energy. One of the poorest countries in the world, Niger has no proper recording studios, music instrument shops, or record stores; the drummer makes his own sticks. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Tal National thrive in a country parched of resources but teeming with music and rhythm. Their songs are intense yet sophisticated, combining original numbers with new arrangements of West African folk songs, dealing with themes of love, tolerance, peace, feminine beauty, and the woman’s physical dance expression based on traditional African rhythms.

www.talnational.com

 

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