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...
On February 28, Mdou Moctar will release Tears of Injustice, the acoustic version of Funeral for Justice. Sharing new single ‘Funeral for Justice (Injustice Version)’, out now. The song – the title track of Funeral for Justice and something of a thematic lynchpin for the band’s last year of work – has been dramatically reshaped for Tears. The original’s tight arrangement and full-blast guitar riff have been set aside in favour of an arrangement that feels loose, sprawling, and improvisational....
Tears of Injustice, the acoustic version of Funeral for Justice, will be released on February 28th. Until then, Mdou Moctar share ‘Takoba (Injustice Version)’, out now accompanied with a translated lyric video. Watch below. In its original arrangement, the song gradually unspooled into an epic crescendo of interlocking guitar solos. On Tears the quartet delivers a more intimate and hypnotic read on the song, foregrounding traditional percussion and call-and-response vocals. ...
If Funeral for Justice was the sound of outrage, Tears of Injustice is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar’s new album is Funeral for Justice completely re-recorded and rearranged for acoustic and traditional instruments. It is an evolution of the band’s critically-adored breakout – the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original. “We wanted to make a separate version of Funeral for people to hear,” explains the band’s US-based bassist and...
Last year, the members of Mdou Moctar convened in Niger to complete their then-unfinished album, Funeral For Justice, and to capture a series of live sets in the region surrounding Agadez, a historically important hub. Now released is the first of these sessions: The Agadez Folders: Live at Sultan’s Palace. It features Mdou Moctar performing a complete electric live set at the King’s Palace in the city’s centre. The band...
Mdou Moctar announce details of part two of the Niger EP series – featuring live and alternate versions of songs spanning the band’s discography recorded in their native Niger – which will be released digitally on October 25th. A preview of Vol. 2 is available to listen to with a live version of ‘Ibitilan’. First appearing on 2019’s Blue Stage Session, the latest iteration of ‘Ibitilan’ captures the band’s renowned live energy in unmediated form, pushing the...
After capping off their last UK performance for 2022 at Green Man festival, Mdou Moctar announces Niger EP Vol. 1, out now. Niger EP Vol. 1 features recordings captured in Moctar’s native country, including previously unreleased 13-minute drum machine and electric guitar epic ‘Imouhar’, four live versions of songs from across Moctar’s albums Afrique Victime, Afelan and Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (translating to “Rain the Color of Blue with A Little Red In It”, the soundtrack to Moctar’s Tuareg-language film remake of Prince’s Purple Rain), as well as a drum machine version of Afrique Victime opening...
Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime was one of 2021’s most lauded releases: an innovative alchemy of Tuareg folk, blues and rock, electric guitar pyrotechnics, field recordings and electronics with poetic call-to-arms lyrics about the plight of his homeland of Niger. In line with their activity supporting African artists, Mdou Moctar announce Afrique Refait, a remix collection of songs from Afrique Victime. The tracklist features sound-makers at the vanguard of electronic music in Africa, with a view of highlighting different...
Mdou Moctar has released the deluxe edition of Afrique Victime, via Matador Records / Remote Control Records, expanding the album with nine previously unreleased songs, including the studio outtake, ‘Nakanegh Dich.’ “These are a mix of demos from Niger and some live tracks from touring around the world, when we were still working out the songs together as a band,” says bassist and producer Mikey Coltun. “These are fun and different early versions of the...
Mdou Moctar has released Afrique Victime – The Documentary. The 10-minute short film offers an intimate glimpse into Moctar and his band – rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, drummer Souleymane Ibrahim and American bassist and producer Mikey Coltun – as they prepare for the release of their critically acclaimed latest album Afrique Victime in Niamey, Niger. Navigating complex world and regional geo-political circumstances, the film touches on the environment, inspiration, stories, challenges and singular musical and personal...
Today, Mdou Moctar shares ‘Tala Tannam‘ (Debmaster Remix), which flips the song’s gentle acoustic guitar vamp into a pulsing and percussive rhythm track for Kenya-born/Uganda-based rapper, MC Yallah (Nyege Nyege Tapes). Released in June via Matador Records / Remote Control Records, Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime was met with widespread critical acclaim, receiving a Best New Music nod from Pitchfork and favourable reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Under the Radar, and Uproxx. The album charted across several...
Mdou Moctar’s sixth album and Matador Records debut, Afrique Victime, finally hits down. Recorded across four studios and two continents, the album has already drawn universal praise as a powerful rallying call – a melding of guitar pyrotechnics and full-blast noise with poetic meditations on love, inequality, and Western Africa’s exploitation at the hands of colonial powers. Read Pitchfork’s “Best New Music” review of Afrique Victime HERE and Rolling Stone’s profile of Mdou HERE. Alongside the album release comes the video...
Mdou Moctar returns with the tour-de-force title track from his new album Afrique Victime, out May 21st on Matador Records / Remote Control Records. “The wind born in Tunisia spread all over Arabia / Africa is a victim of so many crimes / If we stay silent it will be the end of us / Why is this happening?” sings Moctar on the heartfelt yet defiantly incandescent seven-and-a-half-minute rallying cry as...
Matador Records & Remote Control Records are thrilled to announce the addition of prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar to its roster. A once-in-a-generation artist backed by an unstoppable rhythm section, Mdou’s music has roots in both traditional Tuareg melodicism and Eddie Van Halen’s daredevil majesty. Today we offer you ‘Chismiten’, the white-hot ripper that will kick off an expansive new full-length due to hit down next year. “The...
