Songhoy Blues

Songhoy Blues is a band from Mali (their name is a reference to the Songhai people who live in the region) that plays desert blues with harder rock edges. Their music has a sense of urgency and an aggressive style that contrasts with the apparent melancholic tendencies of more traditional acts like Tinariwen and Bombino. The role of the drums especially stands out in their music in the way Nathanael Dembélé uses it as a core instrument and not just as some percussive accompaniment. Garba Touré's guitar playing is as stellar as one has grown to expect from bands and artists who have been working in the genre, and he more than holds his own among his peers. Their earlier work was not as strongly leaning towards rock as their current style, though the direction was evident even in their 2015 debut, Music in Exile, which was their perhaps most conventional desert blues album both rhythmically and instrumentally.