It had been quite a while since we heard anything from Nubenegra (yours truly had already written off the small Spanish label) but they return with 'Shouka', the new album by Mariem Hassan. Hassan is the great diva of the Sahrawi people (Sahrawi means "desert dweller" and is a term used by the Sahara Bedouins to describe themselves, but also the badge of honor of the original inhabitants of Western Sahara, who fled when Morocco invaded the region in 1975 to settle in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic or fight a guerrilla war with Polisario) and her music is reminiscent of the Tuareg blues of groups like Tinariwen or Tartit.