OUT OF AFRICA Words: Polly Glass

Optisme came into 2020 like a clear-eyed breath of fresh air. But who are the Malian rockers behind it?

Formed in Bamako, Mali in 2012, in the aftermath of civil conflict, Songhoy Blues know the essential powers of music more deeply than most. Having been exiled from the north of the country by a regime that, among other things, banned music, they started the band with a view to “recreate that lost ambience of the north and make all the refugees relive those northern songs”.

“Our audience in the beginning was mainly made up of refugees from the north,” band member Aliou Touré told The Blues magazine in 2015. “All the different ethnic groups were there – Songhoy, Tuareg – and they were all drawn there as a nostalgia thing. We played music from the north, and it was a place to go and meet other people. It was our community, a home from home.”

From playing Ali Farka Touré covers at a family wedding, to being ‘discovered’ by Damon Albarn’s Africa Express in 2013 (leading to performances on shows including Jools Holland’s Later), their rise over the past decade has shaken perceptions of contemporary African music in a brilliant way. To consign them to the ‘world music’ portion of your catalogue, however, wouldn’t be wholly appropriate, not least because of the niche appeal that risks implying. Songhoy Blues, especially with Optisme, make records that rock. And while the rhythms of their motherland are embedded in their sound, it’s at least as easy to pick out signs of the classic rock, punk and blues they grew up listening to (including The Clash, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, BB King and John Lee Hooker), along with energetic strains of hip-hop. All of which amounts to music that invigorates the soul rather than agitate it. As we said earlier this year: “Theirs are protest songs that, far from calling on the listener to take up arms, demand that you dance.”

On Optisme, with rare English language track Worry, that was something they deliberately built on.

“When you go out to clubs in Soho, London or New York, you hear hard rock music that can make people move,” Aliou said. “We wanted to make a rock club crowd get involved with Songhoy Blues. It’s about Songhoy Blues reaching even further than before. We want to see people jumping on a Songhoy Blues track like they were at a concert.”

Here’s hoping it happens in 2021.