Music in Exile

Malinese blues. Lots of guitars. Lots. Best Tracks: Soubour; Sekou Oumarou; Nick

I love desert blues. I love it when it is relatively unpolished, and they are just settling into the groove and bashing ti out. After this played, some more produced later material and remixes appeared, and they did not do it for me. But I can totally lock into the groove of what they are playing here. Dig it!

Music in Exile by Songhoy Blues is a great dessert-World Music album. It follows in the footsteps of the genre and while I enjoyed listening to it, I don't believe it would be on the updated list without the backstory of the members. 3.5/5

Not my style

meh.

A great blues album with some great licks

Great surprise. First track was a banger.

This started with very good energy. However, soon it became more of the same and ultimately as an album it somewhat bored me.

Great album. It's rare that I fall in love with something on the first listen, but this did it for me!

Yes, I like It's great with all the special beats and drums, it's really what makes it stand out so much, and still make me groove my head off. 3.4

Only need to hear the first 2 songs to see that I was going to enjoy this album. Amazing discovery!!!

Definitely a unique genre, first time hearing anything from desert blues. Should check out the pioneering artist as well.

Aardig plaatje, maar ga 't ook weer gauw vergeten. Wel fijn om de teksten niet te kunnen volgen!

Best interessant, maar het repeteert me teveel.

Kweenie hoor.

Aardig plaatje hoor.

gott shit, sofnaði harkalega við hlustun numer 1 og eg set hana kannski aftur i gang braðum við svipaðar aðstæður, liked it a lot

vibed to it

It’s cool

Great music but language barrier makes it difficult to listen to easily

bruh

3.5

Entretenido, diferente. Tranquilo

new to me, and obviously no idea on the lyrics but the music is very enjoyable

Really enjoyable this; went in completely blind but a very nice listen.

3/5 for me, pushing a 4. This is a really cool sound, on my second listen of it now whilst I'm working. I'm not a fan of what's traditionally referred to as 'world music', but this is a really fun fusion of bits of that and rock and roll guitar. Would thoroughly recommend the deluxe edition, which has three extra songs, all covers. The fact they did Should I Stay Or Should I Go? and Kashmir says something about their inspirations (they also do Soul Makossa, which a quick Google tells me is originally by a Cameroonian sax player). I listened to it cold first, and enjoyed it, then had a quick read up on the story behind it (they are Malian, from a region that got taken over by fundamentalist Islam, so they had to flee to the capital). If I could speak the language, I think this would push up to a 4 or maybe even a 5, would be interested to understand what they're actually saying.

A very pleasant album with rolling grooves and plenty of nifty guitar work. The songs are a bit repetitive which mostly works but now and again the songs outstay their welcome. As I've said before, one of the problems of non-English singing I have no idea what the songs are about. On the whole though, was a really enjoyable album.

Good quality music

No idea what they're on about, but I liked listening to this

All the songs were a bit samey and I don't speak their language. It sounded nice, but I didn't know what it was about. Were they pro Mali or dissing it?

Another hidden gem, this was great.

Definitely interesting

"We can't stay in the traditional aesthetic of our grandparents; that was another time. Besides, we love electric guitars too much." sagt Bandmitglied Gaba Touré, der mit Ali Farka Touré zwar nicht verwandt ist, dessen Vater allerdings Perkussionist bei Ali Farka war. Man hört Songhoy Blues unverkennbar an, dass sie mit dem covern von Ali Farka angefangen haben, Musik zu machen. Da ist kein wirklicher Hit auf der Platte, hat mir aber gefallen.

Though it was largely unexpected, this one took some time and dedication. It was not an easy listen but the sound was mildly intriguing, enough to get through the album. When I was finished tho, I felt like I had spent the majority of my Saturday in school working on a project that constituted only 5% of my final grade.

I've only been exposed to a little Malian and Tuareg "desert blues," but I've enjoyed the style every time and "Music in Exile" is more of the same great mixture of guitar and African rhythms and percussion. The story behind this group and album is powerful too, fleeing extremists in northern Mali who banned music and keeping their traditional sounds alive first in Bamako and later in the US and the UK, working with Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, and opening for Alabama Shakes and performing at Austin City Limits. I might have to go check out the documentary they are featured in, "They Will Have to Kill Us First."

These guys know how to play! Too often the blues can be boring, but these guys know how to tear it up. The language barrier is detrimental unfortunately. It’s not their fault, but I am the one doing the ranking. So the lack of my understanding the words prevents me from truly understanding the whole package. One thing I did pick up on is that the lyrics were often repetitive. From a not knowing the language point of view, I think the repetition would be more of a negative if I did know the language. One last comment on the fuckers who ran these guys out of their homeland. What kind of asshole do you have to be to not realize what a treasure their music is? This part of their story bumps them up a 1/2 star.

Okay

You know this is the shit I’m here for

Desert blues, you say? Also known as Tishoumaren, you say? Tishoumaren , which is based on a french word meaning 'Unemployed', you say? EXILES YOU SAY? Five stars, I say.

Pop Afro grooves, energetic and hypnotic. And a fantastic live band too.

Not sure how many others could say this and mean it,  but I'm a big fan of the Timbuktu music scene. I'm serious! Ali Farka Touré, an amazing guitar player, is also from the Timbuktu region. He got his university degree in Music from Timbuk U. (OK that's a joke.) It doesn't say if Songhoy Blues guitarist Garba Touré is related to  Ali Farka Touré. He's not related to the other Touré's in the band so perhaps it's a coincidence. I like how the band has refreshed the dessert blues sound that Ali Farka Touré and others introduced outside of Mali. They have modernized the sound but kept the traditional guitar licks and style and also play the n'goni - a stringed instrument that marries so well with the guitar licks.

I used to get a lot of mileage out of "Soubour" in my spinning classes. I like the driving beat and bluesy, guitar-up-front sound, as well as the fact they all sing. The song-writing is good. They stick to their style but the songs vary enough to keep it interesting. I only listened to it once, so I'll assume I would have liked it even more second time round.

After a week of receiving dubious albums this was a nice surprise. I'm a big fan of music from Mali but there's no delicate string sounds of the Kora here, this is predominantly pretty heavy blues infused electric guitar. Wiki shows that they started out covering Ali Farka Toure, but despite having the same surname there isn't any relation. I guess Toure is the Smith of Mali. I shake my head when I read that many folks dismissed this album because they don't understand the lyrics. I guess they're also the same folks that also don't watch foreign flicks with subtitles. Oh well, their loss, they're missing out on some pretty soulful and glorious music.

Genre: Songhai Music 4/5 Part-tribal, part-Black Keys, Songhoy Blues is an interesting world music fusion that I did not know I needed until I put it on the stereo. While I was first rather impressed at this book including such an album, but upon research you'll soon find that there's a western mind behind the boards, Nick Zinner, guitarist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He does a great job of getting the best out of these boys, whether it's a ballad or a heavy rocker. The vocals and percussion are all fairly tribal, but the added electric guitar layers prove a worthy addition to the age-old Songhai formula. Some great examples are the rocker, Ai Tchere Bele, where it rides its one chord all the way to the end, with near-experimental arpeggios behind it all. The slow and sweet, acoustic finisher, Mali, does a great job wrapping it all up sonically. Way better than I had anticipated, and will certainly stick around in the rotation. Best blues album I've listened to so far in this exercise!

Rating: 10/10

Oddly catchy and enjoyable. I liked the album and would listen again.

Toutes les accusations de racisme portées à mon encontre sont infondées

Pas fan.

ce fut une écoute agréable

My favourite African album so far - good guitar hooks and solid playing.

Desert blues. Muy interesante!

Enjoyed it. Cool bluesy music, well made

2015. Sekou Oumarou, Soubour

this is belting. they're all called toure or dembele so they're probably fucking mint at football too. does this mean i'm a world music guy now? man i'm old. what time is giles peterson on?

I didn't hate it you know. A bit like that Chesterfield Middlesbrough Fa Cup semi final in 1997.

The Songhoy Bhoys there doing bits. Good.

Disco molto piacevole e godibilissimo. Un ottimo ascolto.

Makes me wish I could understand the language. It seems really neat, and the instrumentation is so fun.

vibrant music from Mali, swinging and righteous

Kind of sounded rockabilly...

Clearly inspired by the late, great Ali Farka Touré, Songhoy Blues brings the same unstoppable energy to their music that made Ali so influential. "Music in Exile" is powerful and moving in a way that modern American blues so often isn't. The electric tones of Muddy Waters and Albert King find whole new dimensions when they're shaped and guided by the unexpected rhythms and patterns of Malian music. It's a whole vibe and I couldn't be more here for it. I don't understand a word that's being said and I don't care. This is just so damn good.

Great rhythm with a lot of energy. Would love to know what they are singing about as I feel there is a story here that’s quite interesting

Yeah, I loved this - could happily listen to Mali's desert blues all day! Super interesting to hear fragments of rock n roll picked up and woven into their own tradition. Fave track - "Soubour" is a great opener. "Wayei" for something on the chiller side...

Incredible music, love this

Musically this was great, and I am sure based on the wiki that this tells a great story, however partly due to the language barrier it wasn't for me

The rhythms on this thing are awesome. So different and unique, really enjoyed hearing how not only the drums but also a lot of the melodies would shift and feel off kilter before you really find them as they develop. A bit repetitive within the songs for me but still very cool listen.

Bluesy, I liked it.

Great beats, a little too repetitive for me to get into.

I liked it, but couldnt listen for a long time.