Black Tenere

Anana Harouna is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from the Sahara with an intriguing history. He's a Touareg (he prefers the term Kel Tamashek) who was born in Niger, has performed with Tinariwen from neighbouring Mali, but is now based in Brussels, where he formed Kel Assouf. The band set out to fuse desert blues with Western rock and electronica and originally included the singer-songwriter and actress Toulou Kiki, praised for her role in Timbuktu. Now Kel Assouf are a trio, with Anana joined by the Tunisian producer and keyboard player Sofyann Ben Youssef (who is also the mastermind behind the brilliant AMMAR 808) and a Belgian jazz drummer, Oliver Penu.

The new album kicks off with ‘Fransa’, in which a repeated, pounding blues-rock electric guitar riff is matched against throbbing electronic effects. The lyrics may be thoughtful, dealing with war and colonisation, but it's a no-nonsense head-banger. Blues-rock dominates the rest of the set, but there is welcome variety. ‘Tamatant’ is a slow ballad in which Anana's powerful, intimate vocals are matched against a wash of guitar and electronica effects, while ‘America’ provides a reminder of Penu's percussion skills. I suspect that the new Kel Assouf will sound even better playing live.