When "Gnawa" is on the package, you never know what you'll find inside. I recently obtained this 45 rpm 7" record. It likely dates from the early 1970s. Sure, it looks like it would contain a recording of a Gnawa group from a performance at the storied Festival des Arts Populaires (commonly known as the Folklore festival). Gnawa groups perform regularly at this Marrakech festival, including the Ismkhan - Amazigh-speaking Gnawa groups, always clad in white foqia robes, like the group pictured on the sleeve of this record. Like these guys: Sure, that would be logical. But who is this, and why ..read more

I've extolled the virtues of dqiqiya (a.k.a. tkitikate) men's percussion and vocal groups in these pages before, most comprehensively in the post Tkitikate! Tkitikate! Party Time! Excellent!. I went as far as to posit the genre as "an active repository of Moroccan musical memory... like a jukebox".  To be clear, I meant to say that A GOOD, LIVE DQIQIYA GROUP functions like that.  On the other hand, there is a variety of commercial cassette that while exhibiting some sonic similarities to dqiqiya is primarily a cash-in on whatever is floating around in pop culture at the moment ..read more

This tape comes to us from... well, down the street in El Cerrito, California, where I found and purchased it! This is a swell album from singer Fatima Tamrrakchit. The texture on every song is a bit different - there's always some combination of the typical Soussi amarg ensemble (rrbab fiddle, lotar lute or banjo) with additional instruments (electric guitar, a violin, maybe that was a sythn banjo, and some sort of bass instrument - it's a bit deep in the mix (which is fine), it could be a keyboard, or it might be a big Gnawa guinbri). The percussionists keep things lively and at times wild ..read more

I had asked the tape seller if he had any Gnawa tapes. He pulled down this one, popped it in the deck for me, and pushed play. I thought to myself this seems to me like anti-Gnawa. I wanted the warm, woody, resonant rumble of the sintir and call & response vocals of full-throated baritones. What I got was some crazy electro-drum-and-synth driving home the perpetual Moroccan chaabi 6/8 beat, and a young lady leading the call and response vocals. And yet the j-card read "Special Gnawa" and had pictures of Gnawa musicians on it, so I grabbed it, figuring it would at least be interesting to fi ..read more

  Here's a swell rai album from singer Najat Tazi. This dates to 1992 or '93. Najat hails from the region of Taza in northeastern Morocco. The internet boasts dozens of her albums on international streaming platforms like YouTube, Spotify, etc. On some she sings in Riffian Tamazight (Tarrifit), and on others she sings in Moroccan Arabic. Despite this prolific output, I can find almost no details of her life or career online. The one short article I found relates that she was born in the town of Aknoul, north of Taza, began her career singing backup for many artists, gained initial notori ..read more

I'll have some new old music to share in a few days. For the moment, here's an update to some old music I shared before. When I first visited Morocco in 1992, Nass el Ghiwane had just released an album whose opening track "Intifada" commemorated the uprising in Palestine. The following year, the Oslo Accords seemed to indicate movement toward justice and reconciliation, but it was not to be. Now here we are thirty years later, seemingly further than ever from justice.  I shared this album back in 2011. I've added a FLAC link in the original post. And here's the album as a YouTube playlis ..read more

"El Âloua" is one of the most famous and moving pieces of the âita repertoire, a staple at weddings and other parties, performed both by modern chaâbi groups and by traditional groups of chikhate. Like most âita songs, it is not associated with a single performer but rather belongs to the collective patrimony. However, the best version of the song, according to many, is that of singer and lotar player Ahmed Ould Kaddour. Ould Kaddour was born in 1934 in the town of Ben Ahmed. After performing locally for some years, he began in 1960 to divide his time between Ben Ahmed and Casablanca. Kaddour ..read more

New Jeblia Selections is probably a better translation, but New Mountain Variety (which Google gave me as a translation of  منوعات جبلية جديدة) sounds like something you'd find in the Stash. And a nice variety it is, too, provided by the artist Al Boudali Ahmed, about whom I can find absolutely no trace on the interwebs. Side A is a nice long track of taktouka jabalia, and side B contains two tracks of Jbala-flavored chaâbi. Here's a pinch: I picked up this tape during my visit to Tangier in 2001. Find additional varieties from Northern Morocco in my 2013-14 posts here and here. Al Boud ..read more

This post is a sequel to one of the earliest posts on Moroccan Tape Stash back in 2011. That post shared the tape Voix de Casablanca VDC 53, one of the wildest tapes in the Stash - raucous drum kit rolicking and punctuating along with in-your-face breakneck qarqabas, and non-stop thumping guinbri.  Today I'm sharing VDC 51, which duplicates a fair amount of what's on VDC 53. Of its six tracks, only 3 do not appear completely or partially on VDC 53. These 3 new tracks (A1, B3, and B4) do not feature the outlandish drummer, but from the sound of the mix and the musicians, they sound like t ..read more

Here's another Rouicha album that I don't see on any of the streaming platforms.  Rouicha's albums are always sung either completely in Arabic (Moroccan darija) or completely in Tamazight (Middle Atlas dialect). Today's offering is the first one I've shared where he sings in Tamazight. Although the grooves and rhythms are basically the same as on his Arabic songs, the melodies tend to be a little different - less wide ranging, remaining in a narrow ambitus. Interestingly on this tape there are 3 distinct vocal groups - Rouicha singing solo, a female respondent group, and a male responde ..read more