TINARIWEN Aman Iaman: Water Is Life Independiente ****

It's probably the most rock'n'roll back-story of them all. Formed in Colonel Gadafy's Libyan guerilla camps in the late 1970s, from where they emerged with a Stratocaster in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other, Tinariwen spent their early years making rebel music supporting their fellow Tuareg nomads under attack from the Malian government.

By the time the world beyond Mali found out about them on their 2004 album, Amassakoul, the collective had perfected a unique form of hypnotic desert blues. It's all about the sounds which enigmatic band leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and friends get from their guitars. Scratchy and squawking, Tinariwen sound jerkier than a bunch of art-rock punk-funk revivalists. On their latest album, where producer Justin Adams has admirably balanced a need for clarity with the band's raw emotional sonics, Tinariwen shake the sand from their feet and head for the skies.

Hugely evocative of previous desert maestros - there are some mad echoes here of Ali Farka Toure's twists and turns - Aman Iaman has a passionate fire to its soul. You can hear this especially on Soixante Trois, where the shuffling, bare-bones guitar lines snake away towards the horizon, and in the lo-fi intensity that envelops Ahimana. An extraordinary record from an extraordinary band. www.tinariwen.com