May 21, 2021
Matador
1xLP
Mdou Moctar lists his two chief influences as the melodies of Tuareg music and the stylings of Eddie Van Halen. This is immediately apparent. Moctar is one of the world’s eminent fusionists and combines the hypnotic grooves and repetition of West African Desert blues with the face-melting guitar wizardry you’d hear pouring from headbanger-filled North American vans stationed across big-box parking lots on any given evening. Afrique Victime follows in the same direction as his previous albums by combining his disparate influences into something completely new that not only acts as a melding of east meets west styles but as some of the most distinctive psychedelic music you can hear today.
IYL: Jimi Hendrix, Tinariwen, air guitar