| Afrique Victime | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 21 May 2021 | |||
| Studio | Multiple places[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 41:23 | |||
| Label | Matador | |||
| Producer | Michael Coltun | |||
| Mdou Moctar chronology | ||||
| ||||
Afrique Victime is the sixth album by the Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar and his first on Matador Records. The album, which was released on 21 May 2021, is sung almost entirely in Tamasheq and some parts in French. Its lyrics concern sexism, war crimes, and colonialism.[1][2] The album contains acoustic-rock music with some hints of local desert blues. Moctar and his band worked on Afrique Victime while he was touring for his 2019 album Ilana: The Creator, recording in studios and other places. To promote Afrique Victime, the band went on tour in 2022 and released a companion documentary about the creation of the album, showing the difficulties the band members faced by living on two continents—Africa and North America.[3]
Afrique Victime incorporates local Saharan takamba music. The songs contain desert-like textures, with some fast-paced songs and some slow-paced songs. Most of the slow-paced songs were based on love.[clarification needed] Other than desert-like textures, the songs have group harmonies, repeated riffs, and some incorporation from Jimi Hendrix's music. Just after the release, two other albums were released based on Afrique Victime, the deluxe edition and Afrique Refait, Afrique Refait contains remixes of the original songs and the Deluxe Edition contains an unreleased song, titled Nakanegh Dich.
Afrique Victime received positive reviews from international publications, several of which listed it as one of the best albums of 2021. The album was an important breakthrough for Moctar's career, according to Spin magazine.[4] The album also gained international recognition, with multiple music publications placing it in their end-of-year lists. Some music publications compared the song to Jimi Hendrix's works, while others noted the fast-paced music and political lyrics.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Yoo, Noah. "Mdou Moctar: "Afrique Victime"". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 8 July 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:9was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Leorne, Ana (3 May 2024). "Mdou Moctar's Electrifying Funeral For Justice". Spin.com. Retrieved 20 July 2024.