Akal Warled

Mix the hypnotic call-and-response vocals and tinde hand-drums of the Touareg troupe Tartit with the electric guitars, rocking rhythms and desert blues riffs of Tinariwen, and you might end up with Imarhan Timbuktu. Indeed, the group is in effect a spin-off from Tartit, for its members include that group's female leader Fadimata Walet Oumar (aka Disco) and her sister Zeinabou Walet, together with guitarist Mohamed Issa Ag Oumar El Ansari (aka Medissa), who regularly provides the instrumental backing for their voices.

On their debut album, the roles are reversed and it's the snaking electric guitars of Medissa and his younger brother Ousmane and the loping bass lines of Baba Traoré that take the lead, with Disco and her sister adding contrapuntal backing vocals, ululating cries and hand claps.

The album's title means ‘foreign country.’ And like so much music from northern Mali over the past two years, the album speaks of exile and hardship; after Islamic extremists took over the region in 2013, members of the group fled to Mauritania and Burkina Faso. But there's a compellingly simple poetry to Medissa's lyrics that deal not only with the pain of exile, but addresses subjects such as peace and unity, cultural tradition and love.