Psych / Garage Rock

Review: Darkside - the duo of visionary producer Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington - have brought their touring drummer Tlacael Esparza into the recording process for this third album of theirs and he's now a full-time member. The songs for this album, which were recorded in Los Angeles, the south of France and Paris, came out of a series of improvisational jam sessions and they transport you into their swaggering and inventive universe where anything goes. The sheer joy of 'S.N.C' brings to mind Jaco Pastorius in terms of taking the bass guitar to new heights and the funk keyboard is a throwback to the 80s Casio era. 'Graucha Max' is a lot darker and twisted, delving into psychedelic rock with distorted lines, but then splicing it with sub-heavy bass that would ignite any club dancefloor. Darkside are right up there with the best the Los Angeles scene has to offer right now.

Review: Nigerian singer, songwriter, and guitar legend, Mdou Moctar should need no introduction if you keep an ear to the ground of sub-Saharan African music. Then again, the vague region covers a vast area - land in all four hemispheres and around 15% of the Earth's walkable surface. So you could be forgiven for missing out on an individual artist if, for example, you weren't already looking for them specifically. Or relied on Western culture media for tips on what to hear next. That said, problematically tunnel-visioned as the North Atlantic-hegemony of commentators can be, Moctar has been something of a darling to UK, European and US musos for a while now. On Tears of Injustice he presents a convincing case for their continued adoration. A master of Tuareg, a style of music also known as desert blues, it's an intoxicating sound that easily transports and invokes, even if the predominantly Tamasheq language he sings in remains a mystery - arguably another factor in the powerful mythology surrounding his legacy.

Review: Mdou Moctar's reimagining of his work presents a powerful counterpoint to the blistering original. Recorded in the wake of a political crisis that left the band stranded in the US, this acoustic version strips back the aggression, replacing it with raw grief. The band, recording in Brooklyn's Bunker Studio, brings a new, meditative quality to the music, with the songs remaining heavy but haunting in their unamplified form. The standout 'Imouhar' takes shape through two rapid-fire passes, seamlessly merged into one hypnotic take. Where the original album burned with anger, this version captures the sadness and sorrow of a nation caught in perpetual turmoil.