{"id":10524,"date":"2019-08-21T14:25:40","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T13:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524"},"modified":"2019-08-21T14:26:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T13:26:43","slug":"imarhan-night-day-cafe-reviewed-by-david-adamson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524","title":{"rendered":"Imarhan<\/strong> | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imarhan<\/em> | Night & Day Cafe | Manchester: August 6th <\/strong> <\/p>\n

The Night & Day caf\u00e9 looks like a cross between Cheers<\/em> and the red-lit and threatening open-mic nights from every country music biopic. Throughout the decade I\u2019ve been coming in here, it\u2019s never changed. A while back it obviously made a series of personal and aesthetic decisions and stuck to them. While bars across Manchester have periodically changed their identity with the kind of clawing desperation that Chris Martin would find undignified, Night & Day have just got on with it.<\/p>\n

Formed in 2006, the Algerian band Imarhan<\/em> have clearly followed a similarly principled path. Barring their bassist Tahar Khaldi \u2013 who wears a Fender<\/em> t-shirt and jeans on this occasion \u2013 they wear traditional Tuareg dress, percussionist Haliballah Akhamouk with added tagelmust<\/em>. You would think this might be seen as folksy and prelapsarian by a music public by now so jaded by affected musicians. It can, after all, get tiring, never being sure whether to laugh at some apparent in-joke or stroke your beard and nod. However there\u2019s no such worry with Imarhan, because their music \u2013 and approach to it \u2013 is simple and honest in the way that all the best things are.<\/p>\n

Their more meditative \u2013 even mournful \u2013 songs make me want to drop my phone in my pint and wander the earth like Jules Winnfield. Then a song like their eponymous and electrifying anthem ‘Imarhan’ will start, guitarists Abdelkader Ourzig and frontman Sadam Ag Ibrahim send a raw fervour through the crowd, and I would be fishing my phone out, wringing it dry and arranging an impromptu night out. Their music does that to you, a rare joy that makes you feel rather than think.<\/p>\n

In a way it\u2019s easier to talk about their music through allusions to Pulp Fiction<\/em> than it is to try and painstakingly depict it. Not only am I woefully illiterate and unqualified in the variations and splintering styles of Tuareg music, to try to render it perfectly in words is to miss the point. Everyone here seems happy. There\u2019s no pretence, no happening<\/em>, no guitar-tuning spiels about how shit the world outside is, just a very good band playing very well, and a full crowd that are pleased they\u2019re here. <\/p>\n

The songs are obviously paramount, but the band are in no way anonymous. Each of them seems to radiate a singular personality and sense of individual cool, much like \u2013 at one time, anyway \u2013 The Strokes<\/em>. The comparison might seem cheap, but for a band formed when the star of Casablancas et al<\/em> was just beginning to fade, they took the best of the fabled \u2018five man band\u2019 dynamic and made it their own. <\/p>\n

Sadam, an excellent guitarist, is undoubtedly a frontman, slightly aloof and magnetic, also possessing the not necessary but helpful attribute of being handsome. Guitarist Ourzig plays rhythm like Keith Richards plays rhythm; with an unflappable sense of the song\u2019s core and an ear for unshowy flare. Bassist Khaldi is the coolest of them in the way that capos<\/em> in mob dramas are, inscrutable but intriguing, and pulls off a Fender<\/em> t-shirt like no English roadie has ever managed. Alongside Akhamouk, fellow percussionist Hicham Bouhasse plays a calabash – what looks like a drinks globe and sounds better than any drum kit. The two players\u2019 astounding command of a variety of percussive instruments shows them as the engine room of the band, and the force that drives this crowd through initial English diffidence into joyous movement. <\/p>\n

Much like the venue they find themselves in, Imarhan<\/em> clearly made a series of simple decisions early on and stuck to them, improving and honing a personal style over the years. Because of this, they can simply carry on doing their own thing, and I\u2019m excited to see how it blossoms. <\/p>\n

by David Adamson<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | Manchester: August 6th The Night & Day caf\u00e9 looks like a cross between Cheers and the red-lit and threatening open-mic nights from every country music biopic. Throughout the decade I\u2019ve been coming in here, it\u2019s never changed. A while back it obviously made a series of personal and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nImarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | Manchester: August 6th The Night & Day caf\u00e9 looks like a cross between Cheers and the red-lit and threatening open-mic nights from every country music biopic. Throughout the decade I\u2019ve been coming in here, it\u2019s never changed. A while back it obviously made a series of personal and […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-21T13:25:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-21T13:26:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524\",\"name\":\"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-21T13:25:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-21T13:26:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"The Manchester Review\"},\"description\":\"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | Manchester: August 6th The Night & Day caf\u00e9 looks like a cross between Cheers and the red-lit and threatening open-mic nights from every country music biopic. Throughout the decade I\u2019ve been coming in here, it\u2019s never changed. A while back it obviously made a series of personal and […]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2019-08-21T13:25:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-08-21T13:26:43+00:00","author":"The Manchester Review","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Manchester Review","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524","name":"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-21T13:25:40+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-21T13:26:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=10524#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Imarhan | Night & Day Cafe | reviewed by David Adamson"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc","name":"The Manchester Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"The Manchester Review"},"description":"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-2JK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10524"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10529,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10524\/revisions\/10529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}