The year’s most exciting West African music comes from Niger, the largest regioin in the nation. Based in the capital city of Niamey, Tal National, making its New York 
debut in a stripped-down sextet configuration, was formed in 2000 by guitarist Hamadal “Almeida” Moumine, who still performs with the band when not engaged in his duties as teacher and municipal judge. A speed rush of contrapuntal guitar lines, hard beats, and chattering mbalax-flavored talking drums, Tal National’s music is a high-octane hybrid greater than the sum of its parts. Fans of Janka Nabay’s Sierra Leonean Bubu sound will notice similarities, too. Kaani, the group’s third album and first export, is a raw, energetic concoction bearing the traces of the dilapidated conditions in which it was recorded.

— By Richard Gehr

Price: $10-$12