Tinariwen

Hailing from the desert lands of Mali, Tinariwen is a group of Tuareg musicians who create arid, wandering songs that evoke their nomadic roots. Formed in 1982 in rebel camps ruled by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, who crossed the Tuareg people with promises of aid for independence, Tinariwen makes politically charged music that’s eerily moody and removed. (The band name translates as “empty places.”) On its most recent album, last year’s Imidiwan: Companions, Tinariwen continued to traffic in raw, twisty guitars that sound in tune with the blues but are governed by something much more mysterious.