Album: Alhousseini Anivolla, Anewal/The Walking Man (Riverboat Records)

The Tuareg desert rock (not blues, as some have it) of Tinariwen and Etran Finatawa becomes a retrospective affair on this debut by the latter's guitarist.

The production is so microscopic that you can sometimes hear the click of plectrum on strings as much as the notes themselves. Not to mention the subtle rattle of a shaker suggesting a hubbub of Saharan insect life. Cross-legged on the ground rather than crutch-thrusting rock, but no less effective for it.