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Tell No Lies - the new album by Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara out May 2009. Click here to pre-order now
“Tell No Lies - The deepest trance-blues this side of Timbuktu. Tougher, louder, edgier and more elemental than ever”
Uncut (4 Stars)
"There’s more light and shade that on Soul Science, with a tangential side-step into Cuban music (‘Banjul Girls’) along with the more familiar trudges through Muddy Waters (so to speak). Highly impressive stuff."
Songlines (Top of the World Album)
“This follow up is even better; it’s even more confident and refreshingly varied, with songs that echo the raw exuberance of The Clash, the rolling blues of Muddy Waters and the delicacy and grandeur of the ancient griot ballads.”
The Guardian (5 Stars)
“Justin Adams is probably the most influential catalyst of African-Western musical crossovers of the last couple of decades”
The Independent (4 Stars)
“It’s an exotic, brilliantly realised example of a happy fusion of cultures.”
The Sun (4 Stars)
“This is an extraordinary album…the track Sahara negates any need for a Stone Roses revival.”
Mojo (4 Stars)
“BBC Wold Music Award winner Camara…offsets his trancey riffs against Adams’s band’s rockabilly echo to stunning effect”
Daily Express (4 Stars)
“[Tell No Lies] increases the intensity with no hint that there might be a limit to the seam they are mining.”
The Sunday Times
"Adams' prowling, earthy guitar riffs are the perfect foil to Camara's airborne single-stringed riti (violin) soloing"
The Independent on Sunday
"Despite the quartet's small resources, they produce a wall of sound, their number ending with ferociously heads-down, no-nonsense boogie"
The Guardian live
"This exhilarating collaboration fuses the blues of Africa and America with blistering rock guitar; it’s otherworldly, soulful and rooted in the mystery and reality of life."
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara
Tell No Lies
Real World Records
"Top Of The World" album
A twist of lime in those desert blues this time
Even though London-born Justin Adams and Gambia’s Juldeh Camara are now no spring chickens, there was something boisterously affirmative about their first collaborative effort, Soul Science. It was as explosive a statement of intent as the first Clash album. This was a territory where explosive blues and rock riffs could collide ecstatically with time African griot rhythms and melodies. No one before had made the meeting of these two worlds seem so inevitable, natural and just such damned good fun. So where does that leave us with the traditionally ‘difficult’ second album?
Well, they were hardly going to blow it after such an auspicious start now, were they? The stars of the show are still Adams’ growling, earthy guitar and Camara’s soaring ritti (single-stringed fiddle). On the album’s opener ‘Keli Keli’, Adams once again makes use of his favourite Bo Diddley rhythm (which, of course, has its routes in Africa anyway) and shares lead vocal duties with Camara. This feels like the most fully formed song the two have written together and there are some sweet call-and-response female vocals which just add to its charm. From there on, there’s more light and shade that on Soul Science, with a tangential side-step into Cuban music (‘Banjul Girls’) along with the more familiar trudges through Muddy Waters (so to speak). Highly impressive stuff.
Howard Male - Songlines
Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara album 'Soul Science' is in all good record shops now, including online at IRL shop now. .
Itunes account holders can purchase the album digitially from Itunes
Soul Science won the Culture Crossing category at the BBC World Music Awards 2008.
Soul Science is the result of a meeting of two worlds , an Afro-Blues shakedown.
After a few years of collaborations with Robert Plant and Tinariwen, Juldeh's sound seemed like a perfect match for Justin's guitar and production. An African Master Musician who played in the fields for farmers as a child, Juldeh has the drive and effortless flow of a great Bluesman. And while his instrument brings to mind Delta players like Big Joe Williams, as well as Ali Farka, there is a lilt in his playing that hints at the ancient links between North Africa and the Celtic World.
Soul Science is far from a purist piece , it has gritty rock and groove throughout. It uses the ancient Soul Sciences of scale and Rhythm to create a 21st Century Afro Blues.
Justin Adams co-wrote The Robert Plant album "Mighty Rearranger" released in 2005 to rave reviews. He has played guitar with Robert's band the Strange Sensation around the world, gaining an awesome live reputation. 2007 sees the release of Tinariwen's third album "Aman Iman" which is already established as an album of the year, produced by Adams.
His distinctive style came to prominence in 1990 with Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart. Since then he has worked with Sinead O'Connor, Tinariwen, Natacha Atlas, Damien Dempsey,and LO'JO, as well as releasing his own "Desert Road" album. He has composed two feature film soundtracks, and was instrumental in setting up the legendary Festival of the Desert. He produced Tinariwen's debut "the Radio Tisdas Sessions", and first collaborated with Robert Plant on 2002's Grammy nominated "Dreamland "album.
What reviewers are saying about "Soul Science":
"...a real landmark in African flavoured blues...it just feels right" fRoots
“Unquestionably the cross-cultural album of the year” – Independent on Sunday
“…raw and gutsy” – The Telegraph
“…this is no dry experiment but music played with real soul” - The Sun 4****
“…pounding percussion and driving guitar with equally stirring and virtuoso fiddle solos and rousing vocals” – The Guardian 4****
“An album to make the word fusion respectable again” – The Evening Standard 4****
“…Camara’s obsessive fiddling and Adams’ wide guitar shapes worked a treat…” – Financial Times 4****
“ …it is difficult not to imagine Bo (Diddley) himself playing "Ya Ta Kaya" or "Sanakubay" on some 1950’s package tour” – The Times 4****
"...this is an exceptional effort" - Songlines 5*****
"Admirers of Tinariwen and Ali Farka Toure should find this irrestible" - Uncut 4****
Quotes from Robert Plant and The Strange Sensations' 'Mighty Rearranger' album.
"the impressive skills of guitarist Justin Adams dominate most tracks, his
intuitive playing is full of eastern promise" CLASH
"a shimmering stew of sounds that's part heavy rock, part heavy Mali, with
Justin Adams playing what looks like a giant leaf (a gimbri). " MOJO LIVE REVIEW
"Plant's best showing since Physical Graffitti" OBSERVER
Quotes from Justin’s highly critically acclaimed debut solo album ‘Desert Road’.
"a masterpiece" – fROOTS
"…a breathtakingly intense and expressionistic vision" – SONGLINES
".. spidery psyche-out improv acid guitars and layers of entrancing acoustics.." 'Pick of the Month' - GUITAR MAGAZINE
"Desert Road is a classic late night listen"- fROOTS
"..powerful and restless...grainy and haunted" - Q Magazine
"..a moody, evocative blend of Anglo-Arabic blues" - GUARDIAN
Quotes from Tinariwen’s Aman Iman album:-
"Producer Justin Adams captures Tinariwen in the raw – minimalist collective playing" – UNCUT
"This third album is by some distance the best showcase of their desert blues, thanks, in part to the sonic clarity of producer Justin Adams" – OBSERVER
"As producer, Adams has captured brilliantly Tinariwen's characteristic blend of loping camel-gait rhythms...and desert guitar lines" - INDEPENDENT
"Justin Adams has wisely kept the band sound as live, and exhilarating, as the were in that Bamako rehearsal room" - GUARDIAN
Screen Credits
Beautiful People – film score co-writer
When The Red Wind Blows – film score co-writer
The Kitchen Child – film score writer
Hackney Downs – film Score writer
3 Ways To Go – film score writer
Numerous ID’s & themes for BBC, MTV, Channel 4 and ITV
Both Desert Road and KIN are available to buy from www.irl.org.uk
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