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Rex Features
Tuareg musicians Tinariwen have beaten competition from Kings of Leon and Bob Dylan to the 2009 Uncut Music Award.
The group, who are from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali, won the title for their fourth album Imidiwan: Companions. Kings Of Leon's Only By The Night, Dylan's Together Through Life and Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion were also nominated for the prize.
Tinariwen formed in 1979, but first began to be heard outside Africa in the 2000s when they toured Europe and the USA.
"This makes us really, really happy, all of us and I'm glad that this important magazine should recognise our music," said band member Ibrahim Ag Alhabib.
"It gives us the strength to carry on working and spreading the message about the peace of our desert home, and I'm glad that our music can cross the frontiers and talk to people around the world."
Billy Bragg, who was on the final judging panel, commented: "I think this band will be hugely influential. In the next couple of years we'll be hearing young bands lifting the tensions and the rhythms of Tinariwen. You find yourself reaching back to the blues to explain what they do, it's like they've turned the whole bloody thing upside down."
Seattle folk-pop group Fleet Foxes won last year's award for their self-titled debut.
