Alone (Ténéré)

Terakaft cannot be numbered among the legion of Tinariwen imitators to have emerged in recent years; they were there at the very beginning of the sound that the Touaregs call assouf and which the rest of us tend to refer as desert blues. Terakaft's founder, Diara, was Tinariwen's original guitarist while the band's other driving force, Sanou – described by producer Justin Adams as a ‘Saharan cowboy with full rock’n’roll attitude’ – is Diara's nephew. Their fifth album rocks and grinds as hard as anything we’ve heard from the desert in the wake of Tinariwen's revelatory debut all of 14 years ago. On ‘Karambani’ (Nastiness), Sanou's lead guitar reverberates like a Touareg Duane Eddy, while Diarra pumps out the heavy rhythms with crunching ferocity and the percussion and hand claps drive the tempo with clattering pandemonium. Justin Adams’ production combines Western high-tech with earthy African roots in perfect calibration. His contribution cannot be under-estimated for this feels like his album as much as the band's, a genuine collaborative effort. It makes for an intriguing contrast with Tinariwen's 2001 debut, the Radio Tisdas Sessions, which Adams also produced. Back then band and producer sounded tentative. Here, by contrast, the sound is loud, bold and confident – a full-throttle roar.