Mdou Moctar.
They call him the Saharan Hendrix. His name is Mdou Moctar and he and three other musicians released an album a few weeks ago called Afrique Victime. His story began when he was seventeen years old. He decided to be a guitarist, but because there was no instrument to be bought in his West African village near Agadez, not far from the vast uranium mines, he simply made one. He played his first notes on the five-stringed instrument and eventually released several albums. This year's is the sixth release by the Nigerian Tuareg. The artist, along with Tinariwen, for example, is representative of the music marketing stream from the African or Saharan crossover, which is gaining ground for this style of music in non-local markets. The opening track Chismiten already reveals that Afrique Victime is no ordinary musical project. The first few seconds are taken care of by a jumble of sounds, among which one can distinguish the crowing of a rooster. An oriental-style guitar intro creeps into the crescendoing noises and bustles, which soon turns into a basic riff. This, after a few separating bars, becomes a version into which Mdou sings in the language of the desert Tuareg. The entire album contains nine tracks, the most important of which is the title track, which is number eight. Despite a number of typical Central African elements, including the jerky, stumbling way the solo guitar line is led and the ubiquitous pentatonicism, it has the most rock-like rhythm, arrangement and structure. The rousing lyrics allude to crimes taking place in post-colonial Africa that cannot be reconciled or kept silent or it will mean unsolvable problems. The messages are strong, unrelenting, and Mdou backs them with his own belief that "Music is a weapon." The nearly seven-and-a-half-minute running time is commensurate, even considering the surprising, somewhat psychedelic passage that precedes the final fade-out. Most of the tracks don't stray too far from the basics of African music, just adding a regular graduating rhythmic pattern and a sense of logical verse distribution with directly related chorus characteristics and instrumental interludes. Typical are Ya Habibty, Asdikte Akal or the more subtle Tala Tannam. Of note is Layla, given in honour of Abdallah Ag Oumbadagou, a member of Tinariwen who died in early 2020. The piece has an introduction that recalls, in a few notes, a live version of the same song performed by Eric Clapton. Also of interest is Untitled, no doubt inspired by the exhibitions of Mdoue's admired guitar equilibrist Eddie Van Halen. The album closes with Bismilahi Atagah, in which receding footsteps can be heard in the sand. But the music performed by these Africans will surely be back soon, and hopefully we'll welcome them back to stages in Europe.