Funeral For Justice , is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of breakout, Afrique Victime , it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down. The songs on Funeral For Justice speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people.
They never help us to find a solution. Mdou Moctar in its current iteration is first and foremost a band. The band got their start performing at traditional weddings. These are high energy events β amps are dialed up to 11 and the whole town is invited to attend.
Things are broken, but they make it work. 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.
An Mdou Moctar concert is now recognized to be a place for dancing, if not full-force moshing. 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 The French have withdrawn.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 β then on tour in the US β was, for a time, unable to return to their families. In we want to be free, we need to smile, you understand? After all, Soccer Mommy began as a bedroom-to-Bandcamp exercise with teenage Allison posting her plaintive songs as demos. Over the years, though, she has often enhanced that sound, using the endless production possibilities, newly at her fingertips, to outstrip singer-songwriter stereotypes. Every Soccer Mommy record has felt like a surprise.
