Wednesday 13 May 2009

Izenzaren - Legends of Berber Music Part 1


I went to Morocco at the beginning of the year and spent a fantastic week in the mountains around Tafraout. While there I met a lovely fella called Rachid who was keen to indulge my interest in Moroccan music. He very kindly made me a cd of music by this famous group of the '60s and '70s, Izenzaren, who set radical lyrics and poetry loaded with biting social commentary to traditional Berber music. Rachid told me that this music is still very popular in the mountain regions of the country, and many young people try to emulate the group's banjo player, though he still holds the title King of the Banjo.

This is raw and hypnotic music that features some amazing banjo playing, heavy drumming and lo-fi dubbed up production. If anybody can help provide translations of song titles, lyrics or any other info about these songs, I'd be very grateful.

PART 1

14 comments:

icastico said...

Very nice music.
Right up my alley.
Thanks for another gem.

Mr Tear said...

Thanks icastico, lots more where this came from.

kreismyr said...

Yeah, great stuff!

Anonymous said...

they are sooooo good!!!!!!!!!!!!!


=D

ajnabi1957 said...

Beautiful I got into Gnawa through Nass Ghiwane. This is a wonderful additon. Cheers

Mr Tear said...

Hi Ajnabi,
there should be plenty of Izanzaren on the site to be keeping you going for a little while. Over the next few months I've got some fantastic tapes of trancendental Gnawa sounds to post along with some Nass El Ghiwane, Lemchaheb, Jil Jilala and other equally groovy Moroccan sounds.

If you're interested in the Gnawa stuff then please check all the Mahmoud Guinia stuff I've posted over the years. He's my absolute favourite!

calumbinho said...

If anyone's interested, I have tracked down what *could be* the transcription to latin characters of three titles in this cassette. I don't know the source - I just found these same tracks already labeled somewhere in my hard drive. They would be:

a1 - (not a clue)
a2 - Imhdan
b1 - Imarjan N Rbbi
b2 - Tassoudad

If anyone can correct or confirm...

dailyleftover said...

link died and it isn't even a megauploader ~ any chance this will be backup? thx

Mr Tear said...

The link should work now.

dailyleftover said...

downing
thx!

Ez said...

Hi, I'm getting "file not found" on these first three Izenzaren posts, any chance of reposting them? thanks

Anonymous said...

The same, here. I'm very pleased with the other two, more recent cassettes you loaded. Which is why I'd gone back to these.

Anonymous said...

Hi EZ and Glinka, I will repost these by the end of the week. they are well worth the wait.
X Mr Tear

Mr Tear said...

Hey!
The links on Izenzaren Parts 2 & 3 now work - I hope you enjoy these wonderful songs. Please be patient while I try to find the zip for Part 1.
X Mr Tear