The Sahara may evoke images of scorching isolation, but the desert is a bustling crossroads for global culture and music. As the name suggests, the desert blues genre is influenced by American blues, especially for Tinariwen, who marry nimble blues-rock picking to haunted Tuareg melodies on droning gems like “Imidiwaren”, and also for Khaled, whose “Aiysha” drops Algerian drums into a smoky soulfulness that would make Eric Clapton jealous. Since the '70s, desert blues players have also incorporated elements of North African folk and pop, and in the case of Cheb Mami & K-Mel's “Parisien Du Nord”, bumping hip-hop beats.