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
This Friday, Matador will release a deluxe digital edition of Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime, which expands the album with nine previously unreleased songs, including the studio outtake, ‘Nakanegh Dich.’ “These are a mix of demos from Niger and some live tracks from touring around the world, when we were still working out the songs together as a band,” says bassist and producer Mikey Coltun. “These are fun and different early versions of the songs.”
Today, you can listen to ‘Nakanegh Dich,’ which was recorded in Los Angeles with Rob Schnapf during sessions for the album. “This is Mdou’s very first time using a wah pedal,” explains bassist and producer, Mikey Coltun. “At some point, Mdou called Rob into the studio and asked him to control the wah with his foot while Mdou shredded a solo.”
This month, Mdou and band will embark on a North American tour, which includes headline shows, support dates with Parquet Courts, and an appearance at Big Ears Festival in Tennessee. In April, the band will travel across the pond for an extensive UK/EU tour.
Released last spring, Afrique Victime swept the Best of 2021 lists, attaining high placements from The New York Times, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, The Guardian, NPR, Rolling Stone, Variety, Esquire and many others. Moctar recently made his TV debut as a guest on PBS Newshour. Watch the interview HERE.
