Name: Akaline Kidal
Brand: Ahmed Ag Kaedy

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SS050cass

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Tape

Limited edition

Release date

2019-03-01

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Secre­tly

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

602318136817

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / Tape

SS050lp

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602318136794

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "602318136794"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Ahmed Ag Kaedy

Genre US

African

Label US

Sahel Sounds

In exile from his city in Northern Mali, singer/songwriter Ahmed Ag Kaedy returns to the origins of Tuareg folk with sessions of stripped down solo acoustic guitar on Akaline Kidal. Available here on LP and cassette tape, accompanied by full song translations.

Mellow pentatonic notes dance over plaintive vocals, intimate and close mic’d, endearing in their simplicity. Drifting from melancholic ballads and pleas for peace, Akaline Kidal is a politically charged and poignant recording for a community ripped apart by division and civil war.

While the Tuareg guitar genre is popularized by rock heavyweights like Tinariwen and Bombino, the origins of the genre are in simple acoustic arrangements. Created in the 1980s as political folk music, the first recordings were made on contraband cassette tapes. Distributed on underground networks, the music spread throughout the diaspora, planting the seeds of revolution and establishing the Tuareg guitar sound. 

Recorded onto 8-track cassette tape in a basement studio in Portland, Oregon, Akaline Kidal is a call back to those early recordings. Captured in continuous single takes, the effect is unfiltered and raw. Like his predecessors, Ahmed Ag Kaedy imbues his songs with a pointed focus as he transmits a message home.

Akaline Kidal

Music US