Malian
desert blues honchos Songhoy Blues made quite an impression a couple of years
back when they first ventured to Europe.
Their impact was such that they were even invited to contribute a cover
of ‘Kashmir’ for a magazine’s CD tribute to Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti.
The
courtyard of Somerset House seems like an incongruous setting for a band born
out of the sub-Sahara and oppression.
But on a warm summer’s night it suits the vibrancy of Songhoy Blues’
performance just dandy. They come
onstage accompanied by The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’, summing up
their dilemma as guys who love their home but had to flee northern Mali for the
capital Bamako, and they immediately begin to set the place alight with their
energy.
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| Songhoy silhouettes at Somerset House |
Right
from the off they seem to offer a variety of influences and none. An early
rolling groove with hints of drone sounds is a reminder that there are artists
out there aiming to forge an Afro-Celtic sound.
Garba Touré’s lead guitar work is by turns brittle and jazzy, spiky and
twirling, until he launches into a thoroughly guitar-heroic, wildly fuzzy
solo. Meanwhile Nathaniel Dembelé on
drums and Oumar Touré on bass (yup, it’s a veritable tower of Tourés) lay down
a shuffling rhythm. Dembelé’s drumming
may seem thoroughly Western in style, but the overall effect is subtly
different, creating a singular sound.
Frontman
Aliou Touré sings with conviction in both his own lingo and English,
incorporating frequent call and response chants with his bandmates, while
cavorting energetically about the stage.
Now and then he also straps on a guitar to thicken the sound, as on
their theme song ‘Songhoy’ itself, with its chunky riff.
Garba
Touré reaches for an acoustic guitar for ‘Hometown’, which shows off their
range with an almost hill country bluesy riff while conjuring unexpected chords
and directions. In the next breath
‘Bamako’ is irresistibly funky, supplemented by trumpet and sax and featuring
another sizzling guitar solo. ‘Sahara’,
on which Iggy Pop of all people guested on their latest album Résistance, takes a blues meets punk
line, with GT’s guitar alternately pinging and then gritty.
But
it’s probably ‘Ai Tchere Bele’, from their first album Music In Exile, that really underlines their range. It’s a wacko collision of styles that recalls
the wildness of early White Denim, with Aliou Touré’s dancing apparently
infected by the spirit of Sam and Dave.
They
close the night with an encore of ‘Voter’, from the new album, finishing the
audience off with its pummelling riff.
For a band which grew out of the hardest of times, escaping sharia law,
Songhoy Blues have a life-affirming energy about them. “Music is the universal language” is a
typical piece of between songs chat from Aliou Touré. On this evidence, he knows whereof he speaks.
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