Aratan n Azawad

No surprise that Terakaft – the name means ‘caravan’ in Tamasheq – stayed pretty close to the sound of the mighty Tinariwen on their first two albums. The overlap of personnel between the two bands has been considerable and Terakaft's two guitarists Liya Ag Ablil (aka Diara) and Sanou Ag Ahmed both played on Tinariwen's last album, Imidiwan. The third release from Terakaft is full of the loping camel-gait rhythms, hypnotic moods and snaking guitars that seemed so exotic when we first discovered the Touareg desert blues – but which are today in danger of becoming over-familiar. Fortunately, Terakaft appear to have realised that these days a little variation on the basic template is increasingly required and Aratan n Azawad sounds like a band trying to push the envelope.

Much of this may be down to the production, which has cleaned up the guitars, shedding some of the grittiness in place of a cleaner, chiming sound that harks back to 1960s California. Someone in the band clearly has an astute ear for Western pop and an understanding of how to blend such influences into the core Touareg sound. ‘Idiya iohena’, for example, bounces along on a rhythm reminiscent of T-Rex's ‘Ride a White Swan’. ‘Akoz Imgharen’, too, is another departure with a pop chorus and some Dick Dale-style surf guitar. On the other hand, ‘Wer Essinen’, with its hypnotically swirling guitars is one of the finest examples of the classic desert blues sound I've yet heard. An album that raises the bar. It will be fascinating to hear Tinariwen trying to top its achievement on their next release.