Imouhar

A slow-building ode to Tamasheq pride that began as a drum-machine riff.
Mdou Moctar, from Funeral for Justice (2024)

Written by
Mahamadou Souleymane, Michael Coltun, Ahmoudou Madassane
Released
2024
Length
5:07
Album
Funeral for Justice

The second track on Funeral for Justice grew out of an instrumental riff first heard on the 2022 Niger EP Vol. 1, where it ran for 13 minutes over a simple drum machine. Pitchfork's Arielle Gordon wrote that the riff was promising but limited without a band, and that the album version, with the full band and Moctar's voice, becomes a swaggering blues rock stunner. For the first minute it sounds as if everyone is playing behind a screen, until a surging guitar solo breaks through. The lyrics are written by Souleymane and the music is credited to Souleymane, Coltun and Madassane.

The Observer's Phil Mongredien called it impassioned and said it addresses the risk of the Tamasheq language dying out as it loses ground to French among younger people. A video was released for the song.

Live

It is one of the band's most-played songs on setlist.fm, with 24 plays logged. It was one of three songs in their studio Tiny Desk concert for NPR in September 2024, alongside Funeral for Justice and Takoba.

More songs by Mdou Moctar

Afrique Victime, Chismiten, Tala Tannam

Sources

  1. Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice, Pitchfork (2024)
  2. Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice review, The Observer (2024-05-03)
  3. Mdou Moctar Tiny Desk concert, WFAE / NPR (2024-09-10)
  4. Mdou Moctar: song statistics, setlist.fm