“I WANT YOU TO FEEL THAT RAGE”

Mdou Moctar has been hailed as ‘the Hendrix of the Sahara’. And in his new album, Afrique Victime, he channels the spirit of revolution – with a tremolo-picking technique that has to be heard to be believed...

- Grant Moon

On his extraordinary new record Afrique Victime, rising Tuareg star Mdou Moctar rails against the history of corruption and exploitation endured by the African continent and its people. The title track starts out as an urgent C minor vamp, its catchy Eb major chorus sung in Moctar’s native Tamashek dialect. Then his sensational backing trio accelerates, pumping up the groove behind him, and Moctar heaves all his frustration into his Strat. The left-hander’s blistering playing takes off, his phasing, echoing, distorted solo a dizzying assault of string slides, bends, and tremolo picking, of fast pentatonic runs abrasive atonal notes and frenzied feedback. It’s beautiful, exciting chaos, with the impressionistic charge and political spirit of, say, Jimi Hendrix’s Machine Gun.

“I approached that solo differently,” Moctar tells TG (our Tamashek’s a bit rusty so we’re doing this in French, via interpreter). “I didn’t innovate in a major way on it, but it’s supposed to be quite enraged. The track’s about revolution, so when you listen I want you to feel that rage a little bit. It’s my way of transmitting that message.”