Some of the hottest electric guitar sounds in the world right now are swirling over the sands of the Sahara, played by former Touareg fighters who forged a fierce and mesmerizing style in the early ‘80s amid resistance and insurgency against a corrupt government in Mali.

Tinariwen’s primordial blues is the sound of a generation of desert dwellers who lost their nomadic way of life and got hardship in return. They nicknamed themselves ishumar, from a word meaning “unemployed.” During their years of militancy, these ishumar not only took up arms but also guitars and cassettes of Western rebels such as Bob Dylan and Bob Marley.

The desert is lodged in these notes and beats like sand in the teeth, nose and eyes. The outlaw attitude is authentic. You feel it. You also read it in the poetic earnestness of the lyrics in the liner notes, where you find anger, torpor, longing and insistence. The music is funk rock and psychedelia in songs such as “Amassakoul ’N’Ténéré” and “Chet Boghassa” and others; it’s haunted chant-rap in “Arawan”; it sidewinds up and down sonic dunes in “Chatma” and in the closing flute and vocal-drone piece “Assoul.”

Elsewhere, you sense the steady trudge of a camel. The sparse formula of guitar knots, bass, hand claps, hand drums and choral call-and-response with the occasional wail or war cry from the male and female singers seems simple enough, but what hits the ears is anything but.

Give it a listen. This has my vote as the year’s best international album.

Recommended if you like: Ali Farka Touré, The Festival in the Desert, Jimi Hendrix