Tal National come from Niamey, Niger. It's a huge, landlocked impoverished chunk in the middle of the northern lobe of West Africa. There's no infrastructure, not much of anything there, so the band spend their free time at roundabouts hawking their own CDs. Now that's enterprising. But I suspect their world is about to change. This is a storming great CD and bound to catapult them to the world festival circuit. In fact, since signing to FatCat records, they have embarked on a US tour. Their music is trance-inducing, with sustained guitar riffs repeated over thrashing percussion (including tama or talking drum), and it is pretty intense. It's essentially African rock (like Bombino) but draws from Highlife, Soukous, Afro funk, desert blues and some traditional ideas. They call it "trad-moderne." They spent six years practicing before releasing their first album and now their discs sell out at home immediately. They also play dusk to dawn concerts five night a week in Niamey so have some powerful chops after a dozen years of performing together. Like OK Jazz they are so popular they created a reserve band of musicians who can fulfill gigs, in essence a clone of themselves, this way, like a soccer team, they can send on subs when the main players are starting to flag. I am sure that's where they got the idea, because the founder, Almeida, used to play football. He was also a judge for 20 years before starting the band; now he teaches music and drama at an orphanage in Niamey in his free time. You can hear a cut from this album, "Wongharey" on soundcloud, and decide for yourself.