Anoura

In 2018 the Malian guitarist Anansy Cissé and his band were travelling to a festival in his hometown of Diré near Timbuktu when they were attacked by a group of armed jihadists who smashed their equipment and took them captive. Cissé was so traumatised that he abandoned music, wondering what was the point of singing about love and peace in the face of such mindless brutality. Thankfully he was eventually persuaded that the troubled times were exactly why his music was needed and the result is this powerful follow-up to his 2014 debut.

Singing exclusively in Songhai, he delivers a mix of desert blues and Western rock’n’roll that isn’t quite as heavy as Songhoy Blues, but rocks hard enough, especially on ‘Mina’ with its throbbing bass and wah-wah and Fuzz-Tone guitar and on the dubbed-up ZZ Top-goes-to-Africa boogie of ‘Foussa Foussa’. Elsewhere there are more reflective moments on songs about education, poverty and social cohesion, and the rock guitars mix with plenty of traditional instrumentation, including ngoni, calabash and the haunting sound of the late Zoumana Tereta’s soku. A welcome return and hopefully a signpost to better times ahead.