After 2021’s acclaimed Afrique Victime album, the brilliant Tuareg guitarist and band band from Agadez, Niger, return with explosive, powerful, emotive numbers, impassioned songs about his culture and social wrongs, wrapped in an electric frenzy of drums, guitars, bass and vocals. The opening and title track, includes words translated as: “Dear African leaders, hear my burning question / Why solely invest in your own kin’s learning? /While other children suffer on your watch? /Why is that? When your rights are trodden upon.” And perhaps the standout track Imouhar, the title meaning brother or comrade, calls out to his own to keep traditions alive: “Imouhar you know this indeed we have a written history / Written in books and the whole world knows it … Imouhar wherever you are, you are Tuareg Turbans and camels, symbols of our legacy and pride/ Imouhar why are you abandoning your language, Tamasheq?” And so it continues, tracks from the quieter, more contemplative Takoba, to the jagged raw power of Sousome Tamacheq, the classic Tuareg groove of Imajighen, the anti-colonialsm of Oh France to the closer, Modern Slaves. Powerful riffing fingers, pacy changes, a superb band, and passion of delivery from first to last. A triumph of heavy rock, protest songs and traditional desert music coming together as one. Out on Matador Records.
Mdou Moctar
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