Mdou Moctar Shares ‘Taliat’ Single & Announces US Fall Tour 2021

Mdou Moctar unveiled “Taliat,” the final pre-release single from his Afrique Victime album before it arrives this Friday, May 21 via Matador Records. The Tuareg guitarist and songwriter also detailed a fall tour of the U.S.

Moctar and his band — rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, drummer Souleymane Ibrahim and bassist Mikey Coltun — follow an appearance at Bonnaroo by kicking off the headlining tour at Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina on September 5. From there, the quartet hits Baltimore, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Holyoke (Massachusetts), Boston, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, Pioneertown (California) and Los Angeles. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 21 at 10 a.m. local time.

Afrique Victime features eight tracks produced by Coltun recorded at locations around the world including studios, hotel rooms, backstage areas at venues and apartments. The follow-up to 2019’s Ilana: The Creator also contains field recordings captured in Niger.

“While people have gotten to know Mdou Moctar as a rock band, there is a whole different set of music with this band done on acoustic guitars, which we wanted to incorporate into this album in order to go through a sonic journey,” explained Moctar. “Taliat means woman,” the guitarist added regarding his new single. “In our community, women are queens, they have a lot of power, that why I use the term taliat to talk about them. A woman in the Tuareg community has to be protected, but she also has to be treated as equal.”

Watch the video for Mdou Moctar’s “Taliat” below: