May 21 street date. On May 21, Matador Records will release "Afrique Victime", the long-awaited new album by Mdou Moctar. On "Afrique Victime", the prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter rips a new hole in the sky boldly reforging contemporary Saharan music and "rock music" by melding guitar pyrotechnics, full-blast noise, and field recordings with poetic meditations on love, religion, women's rights inequality, and Western Africa's exploitation at the hands of colonial powers.
May 3 street date. Nigerien quartet Mdou Moctar present their blistering new album, "Funeral For Justice". Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019's breakout album "Afrique Victime", it captures the band in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild; the guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political; nothing is held back or toned down. "Funeral For Justice" speaks unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people. "This album is really different for me", explains Moctar, the band's singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. "Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. when the U.S. and Europe came here, they said they're going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution". "Mdou Moctar has been a strong anti-colonial band ever since I've been a part of it", says producer and bassist Mikey Coltun, who has been playing with Moctar since 2017.
May 3 street date. Nigerien quartet Mdou Moctar present their blistering new album, "Funeral For Justice". Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019's breakout album "Afrique Victime", it captures the band in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild; the guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political; nothing is held back or toned down. "Funeral For Justice" speaks unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people. "This album is really different for me", explains Moctar, the band's singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. "Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. when the U.S. and Europe came here, they said they're going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution". "Mdou Moctar has been a strong anti-colonial band ever since I've been a part of it", says producer and bassist Mikey Coltun, who has been playing with Moctar since 2017.
May 3 street date. Nigerien quartet Mdou Moctar present their blistering new album, "Funeral For Justice". Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019's breakout album "Afrique Victime", it captures the band in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild; the guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political; nothing is held back or toned down. "Funeral For Justice" speaks unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people. "This album is really different for me", explains Moctar, the band's singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. "Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. when the U.S. and Europe came here, they said they're going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution". "Mdou Moctar has been a strong anti-colonial band ever since I've been a part of it", says producer and bassist Mikey Coltun, who has been playing with Moctar since 2017.
February 28 street date. If "Funeral For Justice" was the sound of outrage, this is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar present "Tears Of Injustice", a complete re-recording, and rearranging (for acoustic and traditional instruments) of their previous album, "Funeral For Justice". It's an evolution of the band's critically adored breakout, and the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original. On "Funeral For Justice", anger at the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people is plainly expressed in the music's volume and velocity; on "Tears Of Injustice", the songs retain that weight sans amplification. They are steeped in sadness, conveying the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in a raw and essential form. "When Mdou writes the lyrics, he typically writes them with an acoustic guitar. So you're getting closer to that original moment", says bass player Mikey Coltun. "It retains heaviness, but it's haunting".
February 28 street date. If "Funeral For Justice" was the sound of outrage, this is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar present "Tears Of Injustice", a complete re-recording, and rearranging (for acoustic and traditional instruments) of their previous album, "Funeral For Justice". It's an evolution of the band's critically adored breakout, and the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original. On "Funeral For Justice", anger at the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people is plainly expressed in the music's volume and velocity; on "Tears Of Injustice", the songs retain that weight sans amplification. They are steeped in sadness, conveying the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in a raw and essential form. "When Mdou writes the lyrics, he typically writes them with an acoustic guitar. So you're getting closer to that original moment", says bass player Mikey Coltun. "It retains heaviness, but it's haunting".
February 28 street date. Indie shop edition. If "Funeral For Justice" was the sound of outrage, this is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar presents "Tears Of Injustice", a complete re-recording and rearranging (for acoustic and traditional instruments) of their previous album, "Funeral For Justice". It's an evolution of the band's critically adored breakout, and the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original. On "Funeral For Justice", anger at the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people is plainly expressed in the music's volume and velocity; on "Tears Of Injustice", the songs retain that weight sans amplification. They are steeped in sadness, conveying the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in a raw and essential form. It retains heaviness, but it's haunting.