The politics of this album, rooted in the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people, may be lost via a language barrier, but the intensity that drives it speaks loud and clear.
The politics of this album, rooted in the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people, may be lost via a language barrier, but the intensity that drives it speaks loud and clear.
From the opening title track, ferocious guitar and polyrhythmic drumming explode, almost recalling a math rock band in full swing.
From here, Moctar and his group blaze their way through an album of emphatic psych-rock.
However, despite remarkable playing and energy that charges through much of this record, it’s also contemplative, varied and tender at times, with the gentle sway of tracks like “Takoba” hitting as hard as the noise and fury of “Sousoume Tamacheq”.
Buyer’s Guide to Mdou Moctar
ANAR
2008, self-released
On Moctar’s laidback debut album his acoustic guitar gifts a soulful humanity to computerised drum beats and robotic auto-tuned vocals, with bewitching, hypnotic results.
ILANA (THE CREATOR)
2019, Sahel Sounds
Moctar’s first studio album with a backing band brings his raw, ragged electric guitar sound to the fore in a barrage of speaker-melting solos.
AFRIQUE VICTIME
2021, Matador
The most sonically diverse record in Moctar’s catalogue, Afrique Victime changes gears effortlessly between soul-stirring acoustic blues and full-throated psychedelic rock.
FUNERAL FOR JUSTICE
2024, Matador
Louder, faster and wilder than anything he’s recorded before, Moctar’s latest album captures his band at their righteous and ferocious best.
Kevin EG Perry
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