Album Review
Funeral For Justice
by Mdou Moctar
Released 5/3/24
By Joe Vickrey
Funeral For Justice Album Art
In some parts of the world, the electric guitar is still an active symbol of rebellion. In these places where parents disapprove of their children’s interest in the electric music is where guitar music’s next innovations will come from.
Hailing from Niger, Africa, Mdou Moctar (pronounced em-doo mock-tar) provides an exciting and intriguing blend of rock and roll combined with the music of the Sahara. Mdou and his band’s newest release, Funeral for Justice, offers something fresh, familiar, and foreign to the rock scene.
Initially, cell phone recordings of Mdou’s music were shared across West Africa – similar to how old school playlists or tapes were shared back in the day. Over a decade after his initial desert shows and lo-fi recordings, that same raw energy still comes out in Mdou’s sixth album.
The opening notes come in anthemic, loud, and full of anticipation. Before there’s time to wonder who the band might sound like, the listener is greeted with fast trilling guitars, hypnotic drum beats, and gallant Tamasheq lyrics.
Photograph by Cem Misirlioglu
The familiar textures of a traditional rock band are transformed by this African-based quartet.
While I’ve mostly seen the band lumped in with the psychedelic crowd, there aren’t many inherently psych elements on this album. Mostly abandoning trippy guitar effects and long instrumental sections, the songs feel much more succinct than the band’s previous releases, which would make this an excellent album to check out for anyone unfamiliar with their work.
Songs like “Sousoume Tamacheq” and “Oh France” highlight just how tight the band is together. All of these songs have a live feel to them. It truly sounds like a band in a room. The lack of fancy production tricks or doubled guitar parts really accents just how locked in these musicians are, even as tempos increase or as the band jumps into synchronized hits.
The only jarring part of the album for me was the occasional use of very heavy autotune like in “Imouhar.” I usually have a special pitchfork I keep at the ready for when I hear artists using heavy autotune, but hear me out: I don’t think our dude needs pitch correction, and I don’t know if the same connotations around autotune exist in African culture. It genuinely sounds like they wanted the T-Pain effect just because they liked the sound.
The album ends with “Modern Slaves,” the most somber tune of the collection. While no English translations of the lyrics are currently available, the hushed tonality of the vocals still cut deep, reinforcing music as a universal language. The song begins with just an acoustic guitar, builds into a full production, and eventually tapers back to an a capella finale. This was by far my favorite song on the album because of the dynamics. Only in retrospect does it make the rest of the album feel a little unvarying. My biggest hope is that the band expands on this format for their future releases.
If you haven’t felt inspired by anything in the realm of rock recently, then this album is the perfect palate cleanser. This is a rock band that isn’t poured from the same mold. Funeral for Justice breaks away from familiar tropes while expanding the listener’s horizons.
You can follow Mdou Moctar on Instagram here.
Photograph by Ebru Yildiz