"The arrival of Mauritanian vocalist Noura Mint Seymali in front of Western audiences feels like the start of a new era."
“Seymali and her group are impeccable, a riot of traditional Mauritanian music and psychedelic rock...The Griot tradition of West Africa is reborn through Noura Mint Seymali whose group turn Mauritanian wedding music into future pop”
"The seemingly effortless way Tzenni straddles new and traditional music makes it one of the finest African albums this year."
"a preternaturally talented singer...a vigorous and highly enjoyable clash of temporally and spatially diverse influences."
"Noura Mint Seymali has put out arguably the best psych blues album of the year."
"gutsy, declamatory playing and singing...Impressive."
"Noura Mint Seymali, from Mauritania, comes from an ancient family of griots, and she has a commanding, wide-open voice…the pentatonic melodies of her songs had something in common with the blues. But her fusion was particular and selective…She only meets American music on her own terms."
"Spectacular psychedelic roots music for the 21st century that skilfully carries traditional forms into the future...Tzenni deserves to make Seymali a global star. 5 stars."
“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.”
"Noura Mint Seymali will change everything you think about Afropop…(her) music will destroy and rebuild your notions of what Afropop really is…Like Fela, her music transcends the popular perceptions of her home country as a repressive, ethnically fragmented theocracy. Her live act...has transfixed audiences throughout her own country and the international festival circuit with equal ecclesiastical power."
"She cleverly merges her powerful voice with the twangy guitar sound created by her husband…this Mauritanian music is an excellent example of roots rocketed into the 21st century."
“The absolutely spellbinding vocalist Noura Mint Seymali from Mauritania is ready to claim the role of her famous stepmother the late Dimi Mint Abba…With her strong charisma and appeal to the audience she will become a major star…Noura is incredible!”
"It's not like we hear a lot of music from Mauritania in any case — it's a pretty remote and closed-off place. But this lady shakes the rafters with her voice, and she outsings many of the accepted tropes about "desert blues" and music from around the Sahara.”
