Wooden Nickel

On May 21, Matador Records will release Afrique Victime, the long-awaited new album by Mdou Moctar. On Afrique Victime the prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter rips a new hole in the sky ­' boldly reforging contemporary Saharan music and 'rock music' by melding guitar pyrotechnics, full-blast noise, and field recordings with poetic meditations on love, religion, women's rights inequality, and Western Africa's exploitation at the hands of colonial powers.