MDOU MOCTAR Releases Afrique Refait Remix EP With remixes of acclaimed album Afrique Victime by Pan-African electronic artists curated by Mdou Moctar

by the partae
Photo Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis

Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime was one of 2021’s most lauded releases: an innovative alchemy of Tuareg folk, blues and rock, electric guitar pyrotechnics, field recordings and electronics with poetic call-to-arms lyrics about the plight of his homeland of Niger.

Today, in line with their activity supporting African artists, Mdou Moctar announce Afrique Refait, a remix collection of songs from Afrique VictimeThe tracklist features sound-makers at the vanguard of electronic music in Africa, with a view of highlighting different scenes across the continent. Many of the artists are associated with pioneering Ugandan label Nyege Nyege Tapes who were vital to the making of the project.

Producer and bassist Mikey Coltun says:

“Jay Mitta who remixed ‘Chismiten‘ is one of the pioneers of the Singeli scene in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Like most of the artists picked for these remixes, he is pushing the boundaries of folk music beyond what it started as to something new and untried while remaining true to his roots. When the Nyge Nyege Tapes mixtape came out it was powerful and we got in touch with the label and asked about Jay doing a remix.

Tommy T who remixed ‘Ya Habibti‘ is a producer from Ethiopia who lives in DC and I knew from growing up in the DC music scene. We thought he’d do something different from the other remixers and he took a more traditional approach.

MC Yallah is one of my favourite MC/rappers right now. Here she is paired with producer Debmaster to create a powerful in your face remix of the love ballad ‘Tala Tannam.’

Duma is the duo of Lord Spike Heart and Sam Karugu from the grindcore scene in Kenya. It’s some of the most interesting and sonically innovative music coming out of Africa: noise and grindcore with a mix of Kenyan roots and Ugandan music. Their video for (2020 single) ‘Lions Blood‘ was super powerful and in your face, and we wanted to work with them.

Yugen Blakrock was recommended to me through a friend I met in Mali years back from South Africa. I was told “Yugen is an MC, but she works with great producers and would be amazing!” This is one of my favorites in the series!

Aya Metwalli who remixed ‘Layla‘ is originally from Egypt and is now part of the Lebanese noise scene that should definitely be checked out by more people. There’s an amazing experimental and noise scene in Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Palestine. I got to know Aya Metwalli through people in the Beirut noise community where they’re a small but tight-knit and collaborative scene. We knew she would kill it on this remix.”

DJ Diaki is one of the pioneers of Balani music scene in Mali. Balani is a house party that started in the capital Bamako and moved to the outskirts. They bring a soundsystem and blast music loud and people dance, going back to traditional Malian folk parties. I attended one of these parties in Mali in 2012 and was sent some Balani music on my cellphone. There’s a great shop in Bamako called Mali Retro that originally sold cassettes. Nowadays you tell them what you want and they throw it on a flash disc. In 2016 I was given a combination of traditional Balani phone music and newer electronic stuff. The four remixes of ‘Afrique Victime‘ focus on different elements of the song separately: bass, guitar, guitar II and vocals.

Rey SapienzMC DougisKabeaushe and Chrisman are all artists I was previously unaware of before working on this project. These artists were presented by the amazing Nyege Nyege Tapes label and were all essential in completing the Afrique Victime Remix project. While a lot of the artists previously chosen came from either East, West or North Africa, Rey SapienzMC Dougis and Chrisman showcase all the cool shit coming out of Central Africa – The Congo.”

Mdou Moctar – Taliat (Rey Sapienz Remix ft. MC Dougis)
Listen / Download: mdoumoctar.ffm.to/taliatremix

Praise for Mdou Moctar

Triple R Album Of The Week
RTRFM Feature Album

Best of 2021 placements

The Monthly Top 10 Albums of 2021
The West Australian Top 10 Albums of 2021
The Music Albums of 2021
Crack #16 Albums of 2021
DJ Mag Albums of 2021
Economist Best Albums of 2021
Gigwise  #23 Albums Of The Year
The Guardian #10 Albums Of The Year
MOJO #20 Albums Of The Year
New York Times Best Albums of 2021 (Lindsay Zoladz, #2)
New York Times Best Albums of 2021 (Jon Pareles, #5)
New Yorker #4 Best Music of 2021
Rolling Stone #26 Albums Of The Year
Uncut #13 Albums of the Year

“The Tuareg guitarist and his bandmates deliver the fullest picture of his gifts yet.”
 Pitchfork (Best New Music)

“This one is essential… It’s musically dense, wildly psychedelic and politically sharp, with Moctar singing in his native tongue across the record to make for the year’s most quintessential guitar albums.” – Mixdown

“Moctar’s guitar is a tangled, twisted, blazing beam of light cutting across a black sky.”
– 
Rolling Stone

“Searing and soulful” – CLASH

“This is a group that is deeply zoned into one another’s nervous systems, grooving hard, moving as one.”  Aquarium Drunkard

“Afrique Victime, Moctar’s first album for Matador, seems poised to attract his largest audience yet” – Bandcamp

“scarcely has a Fender Stratocaster sounded more alive than in his hands… a propulsive, psychedelic sound that is at once delivered with the cathartic oomph of celebration and the urgent cadence of protest” – Guitar World

“As it becomes safe to go out again, seeing these songs live should be as early a priority as is reasonable.” – Under the Radar

“His electric guitar leaps up from the band’s rhythmic core to trill, twirl, swoop and scream
 New York Times

“The world’s most uniquely thrilling guitarist” – Dazed & Confused

“Afrique Victime finds Moctar and his band in the studio delivering the raw power of their intense and transcendent live performances.” – Reverb

“Vital, wonderful music with cutting intensity” – i Paper ★★★★★

“This is guitar music, but likely to resonate with club heads. Unlike anything you’ve ever heard in the West, it laughs at the idea that music has run out of new sounds” – DJ ‘Album Of The Month’

“Transcendent” – MOJO ★★★★

“Mesmerizing meld of Tuareg folk tradition and modern rock” – Uncut (9/10)

“Mdou Moctar and his band are the true sound of youth resistance” – Line Of Best Fit (8/10)

“The consensus that is slowly forming is that he is not just one of the leading exponents of Sahel (Sub-Saharan) guitar music, but one of the finest and certainly most expressive, guitarists in the world” – MusicRadar

Mdou Moctar – Afrique Refait is out now
via Matador Records / Remote Control Records.
Mdou Moctar
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