Out now: Mdou Moctar – Tears of Injustice

Out today, Tears of Injustice is the acoustic version of Mdou Moctar’s Funeral for Justice. It is an evolution of the band’s critically-adored breakout – the meditative mirror image to the blistering original.

The band has also shared a new live session ‘The Agadez Folders: Live at Mdou’s House’, premiering at 4pm today AEDT. The 20-minute performance features three songs – ‘Takoba,’ ‘Modern Slaves,’ and ‘Funeral For Justice’ – filmed last year at the guitarist’s home in Niger. “This was one of the first sessions we recorded on that Agadez trip,” explains bassist / producer, Mikey Coltun. “We wanted it to feel relaxed and comfortable, so, as we all gathered, Mdou’s house felt like the perfect place to film acoustic renditions of the ‘Funeral For Justice’ songs. Much like any session we’ve filmed in Niger, friends would stop by and join in, often clapping along and singing.”

Tears of Injustice owes its existence to a national catastrophe. In July of 2023, Mdou Moctar was on tour in the United States when the president of Niger was deposed in a coup. Moctar, Ahmoudou Madassane, and Souleymane Ibrahim unable to return home to their families. They decided to seize the opportunity to record a companion to Funeral for Justice, one that reflected the newer and graver circumstances at home. Two days after the tour wrapped, the quartet began tracking Tears of Injustice at Brooklyn’s Bunker Studio with engineer Seth Manchester.

They chose to track Tears sitting together in one room, keeping the session loose, stripped down, and spontaneous. After a month, the band was able to return home to Niger and, when they did, bassist and producer Mikey Coltun gave Madassane a Zoom recorder to take along. The rhythm guitarist used it to record a group of Tuaregs performing call-and-response vocals, which were later added into the final mix.

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, 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 raw and essential form.

Listen / purchase Tears of Injustice here.