They Will Have to Kill Us First: Original Soundtrack

The debut film from director Johanna Schwartz, They Will Have to Kill Us First, was released in 2015 and compellingly told the story of the musicians forced into exile when Islamic jihadists overran northern Mali in 2012 and imposed strict sharia law. The film's soundtrack, produced by Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitarist Nick Zinner and now released on CD for the first time, is a shifting, kaleidoscopic collage of acoustic and electric West African styles, with Zinner's own bluesy guitar interludes augmenting recordings by various Tinariwen alumni, a stalwart Timbuktu contingent including Afel Bocoum and Vieux Farka Touré, and the young band Songhoy Blues, whose debut album he also produced and who feature on eight of the 32 tracks. Clever use of spoken snippets from news bulletins remind us that this is not simply a sampler of the best of Malian blues but a document of a tragic episode in recent African history, in which music emerged as a potent weapon against totalitarianism.

Powerful as the film is, it is probably something you only need to watch the once. The soundtrack, however, warrants returning to again and again as it weaves diffuse sonic elements into a wonderfully cohesive desert-rock concerto, one which suggests Zinner has been listening acutely to Ry Cooder's excellent film work.