Robert Plant isn’t the only member of his band to have a feel for African and Middle Eastern sounds. Of course, you could credit guitarist Justin Adams for merely being sold on the idea of Juldeh Camara’s weapon of choice: the west African spike fiddle.

It isn’t something you gore rival folk musicians with (though come to think of it . . .), but the riti, its proper name, is a one-stringed sonic beast. Adams was semi-interested in non-Western styles before he and Camara (no relation to the delightfully named, former soccer star Titi Camara) joined, but the merger fittingly recalls Chicago blues and The Clash, as well as the West African “indie rock” of Tinariwen and the region’s overflowing funk bands. Their second album, Tell No Lies (Real World), purposefully teems with aggressive sounds based on the duo’s shared opinion that most African music marketed to the West sounds too “nice.” Well this is pretty nice, too, just maybe not how they mean it.

– Steve Forstneger