Zoy Zoy

It would be unfair to say that our taste for the Touareg blues style known as assouf, pioneered by Tinariwen and now imitated by a dozen others, is waning through over-exposure; but it's certainly a pleasant change to come across a band from the deserts of Niger that manages to come up with a refreshingly different sound. The six-piece Tal National's second album fuses different West African influences – Songhai, Fulani and Hausa, as well as Touareg – to create a clattering, urgent melting pot of considerable rhythmic complexity. Its pulse may be less bewitchingly hypnotic than the Tinariwen template but it compensates with an energy and high-octane drive.

The overall effect on tracks such as ‘Zoy Zoy’ and ‘Koana’ is celebratory rather than melancholic, intense, crisp, loud and unrelenting propulsive. Recorded in the capital, Niamey, under serious logistical difficulties (there are no professional studios in Niger), the album has a spiky indie-rock vibe courtesy of Chicago-based producer Jamie Carter, but it is not at the expense of the band's raw and original sound. The drummer makes his own sticks, and from the full-tilt pummelling with which he fires up the sound, it's clearly an activity everyone should try.