*Photo credit: Jerome Fino
Niger’s Mdou Moctar isn’t the kind of person who waits for things to happen. Growing up in a village where music was prohibited, he built himself his first guitar from scrap wood. He travelled to Nigeria to record his 2008 debut album, which mashed up Tuareg blues-rock and Afro-electro, and spread like wildfire on the West African cellphone circuit. He produced and starred in the first Tuareg-language film, a remake of Purple Rain. And with each successive, blistering guitar lick, he’s placed himself at the forefront of the North African desert-psych sound that Tinariwen made the world aware of back in 2001. His latest album (and first with a proper band and producer), 2019’s Ilana: The Creator, is an amazing piece of work, bursting with energy and a harsh, shiny tone, Moctar’s rhythm section chugging steadily along behind him as he takes his outrageous riff-work to transcendental highs.
