Mdou Moctar – “Imouhar”

Ebru Yildiz

Mdou Moctar – “Imouhar”

Ebru Yildiz

Since releasing his last album, Toureg guitar wizard Mdou Moctar has been through a turbulent time. Last year, Moctar and his bandmates were stuck in the United States, unable to return to their homes in Niger after a military coup. Some of that uncertainty will surely come through in the band’s next LP. Funeral For Justice comes out this spring, and we’ve already shared the title track. Now, Moctar has shared another track from the record.

The new single “Imouhar” is a ragged blues-rock stomp that sounds like something Neil Young might’ve made if he’d grown up in vastly different circumstances. There’s a hammer-drop moment early in the track when the riffage suddenly goes into overdrive, and it sounds awesome. Lyrically, the song is all about the importance of preserving the Toureg people’s Tamasheq langauge. In a press release, Mdou Moctar says, “People here are just using French. They’re starting to forget their own language. We feel like in a hundred years no one will speak good Tamasheq, and that’s so scary for us.” Check out director Laura Greenhall’s video below.

Funeral For Justice is out 5/3 on Matador.

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