Gandadiko

Six solo albums and dozens of guest appearances over a 12-year career means Samba Touré is hardly a new kid on the block. His brooding 2013 album Albala – marked by a searing denunciation of the decomposition of Mali – was justifiably hailed by the critics as his coming of age. Now, with Gandadiko, the guitarist and singer surpasses the markers he placed 18 months ago. He embellishes his Niger River blues with inspirations he openly borrows from Tom Petty, Gnawa music, Bo Diddley and even Serge Gainsbourg. The uninspiring opener is quickly engulfed by a crescendo of dizzying tracks featuring Touré's swirling guitar riffs, growling voice and searing changes of tempo. These are epitomised by ‘Gafouré’, where a typically earthy Songhai ballad gives way to driving Gnawa rhythms that underline age-old bridges between the two musical cultures.

It all gives added poignancy to Touré's ongoing preoccupation with the ills of his society. But the modern-day griot banishes the economic crises and climatic droughts he describes elsewhere with a defiant message: ‘We shall reconstruct the country.’