Het is weer lijstjestijd en zoals elk jaar zijn er weer winnaars en verliezers, Mdou Moctar vinden we zeer zeker in het eerst kamp terug met top tien noteringen bij Pitchfork (8°) en The Guardian (10°) en een fantastische podiumplaats bij OOR (3°).
Hot as hell was de uit Niger afkomstige zanger/gitarist Mdou Moctar dit jaar, net als de Afrikaanse woestijn waar zijn muziek geboren is. Op Afrique Victime blaast Moctar met zinsbegoochelende, hyper-enerverende en psychedelische desert rock zijn toehoorders van de sokken, terwijl hij zingt over liefde, vrouwendiscriminatie en koloniale uitbuiting. Zijn gitaarspel zit intussen op Jimi Hendrix-niveau.
Mdou Moctar first riveted listeners as a wedding performer in his home country of Niger; his live recordings circulated over shared SIM cards. Since then, he’s continued to find electrified approaches to the vernacular music of his Tuareg background with uninhibited guitar. On Afrique Victime, his first release for Matador, Moctar chases lively arrangements even further while excoriating the traumatic legacy of brutal French colonialism in Africa. His solos rip like lightning bolts across a storm of melody and rhythm, with Mikey Coltun’s bass roiling in ecstatic complement. The band charges through energetic and lightly psychedelic numbers (“Chismiten,” “Ya Habibti”), and find more knots to untangle in their quieter asides (“Asdikte Akal,” “Tala Tannam”). Its title track is a pure thrill, detonating as Moctar’s cohort locks into a churning groove from his sung invocation and only growing wilder from there. Reports of the death of rock have been greatly exaggerated: Afrique Victime is a uniquely vibrant and kinetic recording, one that proves that the future of rock music exists far beyond what any genre or geographic borders can define. –Allison Hussey
The self-taught assouf star broke out of the underground with a stunningly adventurous album that fused psychedelia, introspection and rock-star flair