, his band’s latest album, Moctar inched his hand toward the high edge of his lefty fretboard, using his preferred picking hand to instead conjure a burst of wailing noise. Once they wrapped up tracking it, producer and bassist Mikey Coltun was talking to Moctar about why he did that and what he was feeling in that moment. “This is a cry for help,” the guitarist and vocalist told his bandmate. “This is the sound of the siren.
The Tuareg musician and bandleader plays the six-stringed instrument like it’s the co-vocalist alongside him. “Guitar is everything for me,” Moctar explains from the Matador Records office in Lower Manhattan via Zoom. “It’s my key to everything.” Most of the lyrics forare sung in his native tongue, Tamasheq, but the messaging of the record rings clear despite any potential language barriers and Mdou Moctar’s growing audience in English-speaking countries.
Mdou Moctar’s new record is a celebration of Tuareg culture and, simultaneously, a denunciation of France’s exploitation and profit from Niger’s uranium reserves. “Sousoume Tamacheq” explores the French language’s permeation throughout Niger and how it has slowly replaced Tamasheq. It’s a searing manifesto aimed at fellow Nigeriens to preserve the native language and, by extension, its culture.
That much is apparent from “Funeral for Justice” alone. Punctuated by boisterous cymbal crashes and Moctar’s signature shredding, it’s an undeniable rallying cry. Much like feminist activist Carol Hanisch argued in her influential 1970 essay “The Personal Is Political,” it’s impossible to separate the politics from Mdou Moctar’s music. They are one and the same. “What is going around the world, that is the reason for this album,” he says.
“There is a trust that Mdou can play whatever he wants, and we’re there; the band is there to support, and we all move as a unit,” Coltun says.is the product of several jam sessions they recorded at a rented house over five days in New York State’s Catskill Mountains. Coltun used a handful of drum mics to record the band and used direct-input for the rest, so the band could play everything live.
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