Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:04 minutes | 878 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Matador

‘Funeral For Justice’ is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019 breakout ‘Afrique Victime,’ it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down.. The songs on ‘Funeral For Justice’ speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people. “This album is really different for me,” explains Moctar, the band’s singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. “Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they’re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution.” Mdou Moctar in its current iteration is first and foremost a band. Alongside Moctar, it consists of rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, drummer Souleymane Ibrahim, and American bassist and producer Mikey Coltun. The band got their start performing at traditional weddings. These are high energy events – amps are dialed up to 11 and the whole town is invited to attend. “I grew up in the DC punk scene and this is no different,” explains Coltun. “It’s a DIY punk show: people bring generators, they crank their amps. Things are broken, but they make it work.”

With his seventh album, and fourth recorded in studios outside of Niger, Funeral for Justice, Tuareg guitarist and singer Mdou Moctar brings another powerful set of his electrified and often high-energy desert blues. Moctar first reached international audiences when a song from his locally-released Anar, with overtly auto-tuned vocals, appeared on the 2011 compilation Music from Saharan Cellphones. Moctar explored a few creative directions before landing in a more focused and consistent style. Looking back, it may feel surprising that on his first recordings in a U.S. studio, 2017’s Sousoume Tamachek, Moctar plays only acoustic guitar and the songs are consistently more restrained than his now-signature explosiveness.

With 2019’s Ilana (The Creator), Moctar refined his creative focus to define his now-recognizable style. Recording in the U.S. with an amplified band, and adding American bassist Michael Coltun to his previously all-Nigerien group, Ilana (The Creator) more overtly references Western rock, especially the genre-crossing late-’60s and early-’70s albums by American artists like Santana, Sly Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. Moctar’s desert blues roots merge into a cross-cultural blend with overdriven electric guitars pushed to the foreground and an exuberance sometimes infused with a dark undercurrent.

After the consistently-festive Afrique Victime (2021), Funeral for Justice returns to the foreboding that seeped into his earlier world. The title hints at how this darker energy ties to the fragile politics in Niger, including a recent coup that happened while Moctar toured the U.S. While most American and European listeners are unlikely to understand his lyrics in Tamachek, the New York Times quoted some of Moctar’s views from a press conference. He explained, for example, that “only our raw resources that are extracted from the ground are free, but our currency, which was created by others for us, is not welcome.” This passion especially permeates Funeral for Justice’s most aggressive tracks, from the opening title cut and “Sousoume Tamacheq.” While Moctar’s lyrics might not be understandable, the passion in his and the group’s underlying instrumentals manifest as a visceral force that transcends language. – Steve Silverstein

Tracklist:
1-01. Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (03:08)
1-02. Mdou Moctar – Imouhar (05:07)
1-03. Mdou Moctar – Takoba (03:53)
1-04. Mdou Moctar – Sousoume Tamacheq (05:40)
1-05. Mdou Moctar – Imajighen (04:11)
1-06. Mdou Moctar – Tchinta (05:13)
1-07. Mdou Moctar – Djallo #1 (00:24)
1-08. Mdou Moctar – Oh France (05:40)
1-09. Mdou Moctar – Modern Slaves (05:44)

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