Mdou Moctar | Artist
Mdou Moctar is a Nigerien rock band formed 2008 in Abalak, Niger, by lead singer and guitarist Mahamadou Souleymane. The present day lineup also includes Ahmoudou Madassane (rhythm guitar, backing vocals, Michael Coltun (bass, backing vocals, drum machine), and Souleymane Ibrahim (drums, percussion, backing vocals). Band leader Mahamadou Souleymane, who is known professionally as "Mdou Moctar" performs modern rock music inspired by Tuareg guitar music and sings in the Tamasheq language. He plays guitar in the takamba and assouf styles. Souleymane grew up in the village of Tchintabaraden, then in Arlit, a mining town. After listening to artists such as Abdallah Oumbadougou, he wanted to play the guitar, but his family disapproved of electric music for religious reasons, so he had to build his own guitar using bicycle cables for strings. His first album, Anar, was recorded in Sokoto, Nigeria, in 2008 and featured autotuned vocals and influences from Hausa music. The album was not officially released at the time but the songs became popular across the Sahel when they went viral through mobile phone music trading networks. Many of Moctar's initial songs were shared as MP3 files person-to-person throughout Niger via Bluetooth without his involvement. Some of the songs reached a global audience when Sahel Sounds released them on the compilation "Music from Saharan Cellphones: Volume 1". His next album, Afelan, was recorded live in Tchintabaraden and features "rusty-edged jams and sun-weathered ballads". It contains a cover of "Chet Boghassa" by Tinariwen. Gerard Cosloy, the co-founder of Matador Records, showed interest in Moctar's music, and offered the band a recording contract. Moctar released his fifth studio album Ilana: The Creator in 2019; it was his first studio album recorded with a full band. NPR's Bob Boilen named the album "perhaps the most fiery psych-rock of the 21st century" while Happy Mag placed it at no.13 on their list of "The 25 best psychedelic rock albums of the 2010s", labelling it "serious music for a serious cause." Moctar's sixth album, Afrique Victime, was released via Matador Records in May 2021, receiving positive reviews from international publications including Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and The Guardian. Moctar has been described as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His style is based on rock, more specifically the Tuareg-produced Tishoumaren, a variation of desert blues. Early albums contained auto-tune and drum machines. Later albums feature fierce guitar solos. One RYM reviewer compared the band's sound to early Santana, describing it as "hypnotic, mesmerizing psych rock. Able to veer in and out of heavy psych and softer folk. Definitely recommended if you love a good guitar solo, or if you love something that conveys a deep implicit spiritual bend". The artist's chosen name is based on an abbreviation of Mahamadou, and "Mokhtar", an Arabic name that means "chosen". Souleymane also starred in the 2015 film Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It).
Artist Website: mdoumoctar.com
Featured Albums: Mdou Moctar
Related Artists: Mahamadou Souleymane
