Songhoy Blues, Roundhouse, gig review: A hypnotic celebration by musicians in exile

Watching Songhoy Blues frontman Aliou Touré elatedly strut, dance and shimmy around the stage, flanked by his three beaming bandmates, in front of a sold-out Roundhouse crowd, you wouldn’t have guessed at this musical outfit’s turbulent past.

After his area of northern Mali was occupied by jihadists with a violent aversion to music, among other things, guitarist Garba Touré was forced to flee south to the nation’s capital, Bamako. It was here that the band was formed. When Africa Express, a musical project launched by Damon Albarn and including Brian Eno, came to the city, Songhoy Blues were picked to contribute a track on a collaborative compilation album, Maison des Jeunes.

It was this release, in late 2013, which kick-started an almost exponential surge in Songhoy Blues’ popularity. And at this lively Roundhouse show the four-piece exhibited with passion and skill the sound that has enchanted audiences since. The legendary Ali Farka Touré, perhaps the finest son of Mali’s talented musical family, is an oft-cited and unmistakable influence, although here we saw flashes of American blues icons such as Jimi Hendrix and Junior Kimbrough, alongside sounds remiscent of Talking Heads’ Remain in Light (an album, of course, which took such inspiration from the music of West Africa).

The drumming of Nathaneal Dembélé was fidgety yet focused, tightly wound together with Garba’s repetitively hypnotic guitar lines. “Al Hassidi Terei”, a track from their debut album Music in Exile, was a fine example of this, while “Sekou Oumarou” and “Nick” highlighted the band’s ability to carve deep grooves.

Many songs performed here featured an extended jam, allowing the band to flex their muscles musically, and Aliou to flex his muscles literally. You couldn’t help but smile – crowd and band alike – when he put down his guitar and brought out his wonderfully flamboyant dance moves, all jazz hands and body shakes, sometimes signalling for the audience to mimic him.

Closing the show was “Soubour”, the song which shone so brightly on that Africa Express compilation. It almost took on a reggae feel and stretched well beyond the studio version’s three-and-a-half minutes. Being joined on stage by one of the support acts, fellow Malian Fatoumata Diawara, who contributed dancing and delightful vocal improvisations, was a fitting end to a joyous night. Songhoy Blues may be a band in exile, but the warmth of their music means they were lovingly welcomed here in London, and will surely enjoy a similar reception wherever they play next.