NOURA MINT SEYMALI This intense Mauritanian singer is the stepdaughter of the legendary Dimi Mint Abba, with whom she worked as a backing vocalist. But if her debut EP, the digital-only Azawan, is any indication, she's charting her own musical path. While she employs traditional Mauritanian instruments such as the tidinit (a kind of lute) and the ardine (a harp), she also embraces smoky electronic effects, taut kit drumming, and swampy electric bass—vastly different timbres and textures tangle and intersect seductively, creating a mesmerizing tension between ancient and futuristic. None of that would sound as impressive, though, if it weren't for Seymali's wonderful voice, a piercing wail that alternates between clarion declamation and intense vibrato