This powerful, throaty singer from the North African nation of Mauritania is the stepdaughter of Dimi Mint Abba, arguably the country’s greatest singer in the era of recorded music. Seymali began touring with her step-mother as a back-up singer when she was just 13, and she clearly absorbed lessons from the experience. Accompanied by a slithering yet hypnotic blend of amplified traditional regional instruments like the ardine (harp) and tidnit (lute) and hand drums, her lean band also includes electric bass and kit drumming which brings a taut funk groove to the music’s mesmerizing, arid melodies.