MUSIC
10 Mdou Moctar
Afrique Victime In Mdou Moctar’s world, riff and rhythm count but the solo is king. His grounding in the nomadic Tuareg style of assouf (desert blues) made him a popular option on Niger’s wedding circuit, but the guitarist breaks from convention by doggedly following his fingertips to some place new.
The young Mahamadou Souley–mane was not just self-taught, but self-assembled: he fashioned his first instrument from bicycle wires and junk wood and discreetly maintained his passion for music in defiance of his family. His early recordings crossed the Sahel via Bluetooth and pricked ears for their application of AutoTune and drum machines
Two theoretically opposing rock impulses combine in Mdou’s music. On one hand, the band’s adaptability has a clear connection to the no-frills enterprise of punk and hardcore. They lug their equipment over unforgiving terrain and can spark up a gig pretty much anywhere with a generator. (And fidelity-challenged formats are no impediment to getting the word out: to service fans in regions covered by 2G networks, his record label Matador also sold Afrique Victime in the form of a custom Nokia 6120 handset.) On the other, Mdou’s fixation with the cresting leads and playful showmanship of Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen has emboldened the Nigerien to flex his dexterous finger-tapping.
Bassist and producer Mikey Coltun’s sequencing affords breathers in between levee-breakers, giving necessary hush to introspective ballads Bismillah Atagah and Tala Tannam, while allowing the molten psychedelia of Taliat and Asdikte Akal to sprawl. True to the music’s Saharan origins, there’s ample space here. Sometimes Mdou’s voice is barely above a whisper before the band join him in skyward invocations.
The alternately personal and provocative sound of Afrique Victime is an eruptive statement of intent, guitar music at once familiar and startlingly fresh. Gabriel Szatan
