Faced with stiff competition from Animal Collective, Bob Dylan, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Kings of Leon, The Low Anthem and Wilco, Tinariwen were unanimously chosen as the winners of the Uncut award.

The panel of 11 key industry figures that decided on the winner included musicians Billy Bragg and Robin Pecknold, broadcaster Mark Radcliff , former EMI chief executive Tony Wadsworth and artist Rachel Unthank.

“Tinariwen were the only group that united the panel,” says Unthank. “Their hypnotic rhythms must have cast a spell over us all as we were all captivated.”

“This makes us really, really happy,” says Ibrahim Ag Alhabib of Tinariwen. “I'm glad that this important magazine should recognise our music. It gives us the strength to carry on working and spreading the message about the peace of our desert home, and I’m glad that our music can cross the frontiers and talk to people around the world.”

"There was so much great music in 2009 that it was inevitably difficult to single out one act to give the award to," says Uncut editor Allan Jones.

"I think any of the albums on our eventual short list would genuinely have made a worthy winner and persuasive cases were made for all of the albums under immediate discussion. As our debate went on, there was a growing consensus that Tinariwen's Imidiwan was increasingly the album we should give the prize to. I think for the judges, it had everything we were eventually looking for in a potential winner - it's a fantastically exciting record full of great, powerful music passionately and brilliantly played. When all is said and done, Tinariwen are an amazing rock and roll band and this is an amazing rock and roll record."

Tinariwen formed in 1979 and rose to prominence during the Eighties with their unique mix of electric blues and Middle Eastern and African traditional drumming.

This is the second Uncut Music Award, with last year’s prize being awarded to Fleet Foxes for their self-titled debut album.