Bombino – Nomad

Eastside Radio’s Album of the Week is Nomad by Bombino.

Being a Community Radio station we love to get behind fantastic local and Australian music, and with such swathes of amazing underground Aussie stuff around it can often prove a rare thing for us to have an Album of the Week from overseas. However, when they do come around it’s generally  because they’ve absolutely blown us away. Bombino is a man who has blown us away.

Two years ago he caught our attention with his stunning album Agadez which came out on the Cumbancha label. Since then it’s been quite a ride for the Tuareg guitarist who calls Niger his homeland. He travelled to the US and performed on a sold out tour, and it was there that he caught the eyes and ears of the mighty Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys).

So mesmerised was Dan that he teamed up with Bombino to produce an album.

So what do you get when you cross one of the world’s most prominent producers with North Africa’s answer to Jimi Hendrix?

You get an absolute belter of an album. Rocking tribal grooves, afro blues, crooning vocals, dazzling guitar solos and an infectious cocktail of north African folk and country western music, the combination of Dan and Bombino was only ever going to produce something pretty special. Look out particularly for the awesome instrumentation on ‘Niamey Jam’ and the huge entry on ‘Amidinine’. We can but only hope that Bombino does not keep us waiting too long for a tour on these fair shores.

Nomad is a release by Nonesuch Records. For more information go to nonesuch.com

Stay closely tuned to Eastside as we are giving away a copy of Nomad to a listener every-day this week!