About this item

With Afrique Victime the prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter rips a new hole in the sky ­– boldly reforging contemporary Saharan music and “rock music” by melding guitar pyrotechnics, full-blast noise, and field recordings with poetic meditations on love, religion, women's rights, inequality, and Western Africa’s exploitation at the hands of colonial powers.

The music listeners are the beneficiaries of the staggeringly powerful do-it-yourself musical ethic of Mdou Moctar – the man and the band – who’ve worked so hard to bring the spirits of families and communities in Niger to the West. Afrique Victime sounds and feels like a Tuareg hand reaching down from the sky, and we are very lucky for this chance to get lifted.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As far as Tuareg music goes, things don't get much more incendiary than this. Soaring, rolling bass and gymnastic guitar screams perfectly blend into a brain-melting mixture of groove and grit. A thoroughly bracing and riotously exciting listen.

TRACK LISTING

Chismiten
Taliat
Ya Habibti
Tala Tannam
Untitled
Asdikte Akal
Layla
Afrique Victime
Bismilahi Atagah