On his seventh album, Niger guitarist Mdou Moctar holds no truck with such first-world blues concerns as cheating women and fictional hellhounds.
Always a political animal, his themes on Funeral For Justice are larger and his treatments fierier than ever; the twisty riff of the title track coruscates over lyrics about the trampling of African rights; the trash-can stomp of Oh France demands satisfaction from his country’s former colonial overlords (the vocals are in Tamasheq, but the message gets through).
Heavy as that sounds, the guitarist – who came up playing local weddings – remembers he is an entertainer first, and these tracks pulse with a momentum that suggests dancing – try the manic Sousoume Tamacheq, with its Morello-worthy feedback squall, or Imouhar, featuring an early contender for solo of the year).
Only on the closing Modern Slaves does he take a breath, the relatively mellow acoustic lament belying Moctar’s angry doubts that Niger will ever escape its centuries-old shadows. Like the rest of Funeral For Justice, it’s music to stop you in your tracks.
