MDOU MOCTAR - NIGER EP VOLUME 2

2nd in a pair of gonzo perspectives on Mdou Moctar’s incendiary Tuareg blues, collecting field recordings made in the run-up to his prominent Matador album.

Memorably first introduced to the world at large via Sahel Sounds’ revelatory ‘Music from Saharan Cellphones’ compilation in 2010, Mdou Moctar has had a stellar rise to international acclaim via his string of albums for Sahel Sounds that led to live LP ‘Blue Stage Sessions’ for Jack White’s Third man Records and a fruitful current relationship with legendary US indie-rock titans Matador. The ‘Niger EP Vol. 2’ session relates to a string of mixtapes made by Mdou in 2020 and collecting candid recordings from 2017-2020 documenting the band at weddings, picnics, rehearsals, and impromptu house concerts that evidence the ceaseless stream of fire from his fingertips in multiple situations.

Lighting off with the strolling blues groove and choral harmony of ‘Ibis Amghar’, this one’s notable for the trance-inducing desert psych-blues juggernaut ‘Ibitilan’, beside the Hendrixian flames of ‘Nakanegh Dich’, the swaying folk blues of ‘Asdikte Akal’, and the reverberating rollick of ‘Azawad’, whose tentative start soon enough knits into a swingeing sort of fusion-rock charge.

Tracks for Niger EP Vol. 2:
1. Iblis Amghar 05:14
2. Ibitilan 03:33
3. Nakanegh Dich 04:38
4. Chimoumounim 04:13
5. Asdikte Akal 03:49
6. Azawad 04:05