Tahoultine

Tahoultine runs 5:37 and was issued as a 7-inch single on Boomarm Nation (BOOMARM 004, also Sahel Sounds SS-006), with MusicBrainz dating it November 30, 2011; the Sahel Sounds blog post announcing it is dated December 29, 2011. The B-side is the Gulls Remix at 4:30, by a Portland producer, and the edition was 500 copies. Sahel Sounds describes the path as a cassette on the Music from Saharan Cellphones compilation, a cassette of remixes, an LP, then the single. Writers, producer, studio and personnel were not found in any source.

Mdou Moctar recorded a set of eight songs in Sokoto, Nigeria that was never officially released; the engineer suggested adding Autotune to the guitar, and the songs spread across West Africa on cellphones and memory cards. Wikipedia places the Anar material there in 2008, but no source read says Tahoultine itself was recorded that year, so the date is not asserted. Sahel Sounds says the song is especially popular with younger Tuareg.

What the word means

Sahel Sounds calls it a love anthem and says the title means girlfriend in Tamashek. Moctar told OCCII that the song is about a pretty Tuareg girl and the fact that some of them abuse their beauty, comparing beauty to a snake, a nice creature to see but vicious and dangerous if you do not watch out, and explaining Tahoul as a respectful hello. No source reconciles the two accounts.

It is track 6 on Music from Saharan Cellphones, Vol. 1, compiled by Christopher Kirkley of Sahel Sounds. MusicBrainz lists a digital release dated December 2, 2011 and a vinyl release dated November 25, 2011, while Wikipedia dates the compilation 2010, which conflicts. A search-result report has Matador's Gerard Cosloy saying he had followed Moctar since hearing the song there, from a Rolling Stone interview that was not fetched. The upload on hypersongs is from a third-party channel that titles it an official music video; no official video was found and the master is unverified.