Albums of 2021

1 Mdou Moctar

Afrique Victime (Matador)

Mdou Moctar is one of those rare guitar players who make us rethink the instrument. Some of the base ingredients to his sound might be familiar – a Fender Stratocaster, Roland Jazz Chorus 120 combos, a scattering of commonly found effects pedals. And he, like many of us who picked up the electric guitar post-1978, has cribbed techniques from Eddie Van Halen. But Moctar’s idiosyncratic style is cut from different cloth; it’s a rock ’n’ roll and skronky blues and psych-rock take on traditional Tuareg music, and the product of the most unorthodox guitar-hero origin story.

Moctar grew up in rural Niger. When he saw the great ishumar