Mdou Moctar, FACS

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Mdou Moctar and band.

Mdou Moctar

media release: Mdou Moctar’s new album ‘Funeral for Justice’ has been met with universal acclaim, including ecstatic reviews at Pitchfork (8.4, Best New Music), Stereogum (Album of the Week), Rolling Stone (****), and SPIN (A) to name just a few.

Earlier this spring, the quartet – Mdou Moctar, Mikey Coltun, Souleymane Ibrahim, and Ahmoudou Madassane – taped a live session for “Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker.” The complete three song set is now available to view - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xeQKXQrWIo

Conveying that energy and feeling of community to a new audience has been an important goal for the band. Their first concerts in the US were sometimes, mistakenly, organized to be tame seated affairs. That’s no longer the case. Over hundreds of shows, they’ve proven themselves as one of the world’s most vital rock bands – a group rooted in Tuareg tradition, but undeniably its own singular organism. An Mdou Moctar concert is now recognized to be a place for dancing, if not full-force moshing.

In July 2023 – after Funeral For Justice had been completed – Niger’s democratically elected government was deposed in a military coup. The president was placed under house arrest and the nation plunged into a state of chaos and uncertainty. The French have withdrawn. The area continues to be threatened by terrorism. The band – then on tour in the US – was, for a time, unable to return to their families.

"I don't support the coup," explains Mdou, "but I never in my life liked France in my country. I don't hate France or French people, I don't hate American people either, but I don't support their manipulative policies, what they do in Africa. In 2023 we want to be free, we need to smile, you understand?"