Izmaz - First LP

That last M'Hamed Dammou post reminded me that I need to post this, the first Izmaz LP.  Now, the other (second) Izmaz LP we posted way back in April 2012 (!! doesn't time fly !!) was a big hit in my head, and in some others' too, but this one has a rougher, more primitive sound. The guimbri (that 3 stringed hypno bass machine) doesn't feature so prominently and there is more emphasis on the banjo and rabab (the dry, rasping one stringed violin).  The quality of this nth generation tape is poor, with the sound fluctuating slightly at times, the sound coming out of the speakers feels coroded, like it floats out into the room, rises in the air, disintegrates and dissipates into nothing. I think there's a lot to be enjoyed here.

Just as an extra little treat, here is some footage of Izmaz playing live in 1985.  Check out the amazing three necked rabab: 

IZMAZ   1985 by COCCIMARKET

Get it HERE.

M'hamed Dammou - Masoufa Mosikiaya

Sunshine. Red boulders. Clear blue skies. Barren moonscapes break unexpectantly into lush green valleys filled with date palms.  Singing birds and the insistent ringing sound of the metal ring that balances up on the laughing man's head.

Beautifully serene Amazigh sounds from Moulay M'hamed Dammou, this is instrumental music that comes from Joachim's collection  All I know is that this chap once played in Izmaz, an Amazigh group featured in this previous post. Any more info would be much appreciated. X

Get the goodness HERE.

Another mystery tape from Morocco

We have Joachim to thank for providing us with this wonderful music.  The cassette came without a cover and the print on the case has worn off over time leaving both sides illegible bar the words 'Production Al Afrah'.  Thankfully, the beautiful music is still magically captured on the magnetic strip of tape. The music is from the south of Morocco, possibly the Souss Valley or  High Atlas region. The sound is urgent, insistent and it worms its way into the brain very nicely.

Get it HERE.

Does anybody know who we might be listening to?

Lhoucine Amarrakchi - Berber Music from the Souss Valleys

This cassette is another of the wonderful treasures provided by Joachim.  It's Berber music complete with banjos, rabab and hectic percussion.  Its a high energy affair and I hope you enjoy it.



On the end of each side we are lucky enough to find an incredibly strange instrumental track with rabab and banjo playing over synthesised backing.  Each of these tracks cut short leaving me hanging out for more - if anyone knows where to get the complete tracks I'd love to hear from you.

Tracklist:

Side One
Side Two

Get it HERE.

Finally, any translations, or info about this artist would be much appreciated.

Izanzaren - Hommage a Boubaker Anchaden

Izanzaren should need no introduction to regular visitors to this here little backwater of the internet.  If you haven't heard them before, here's what you can expect:
Beautiful, intricate banjo lines. Call and response vocals (sung in Tachelhit) with socially conscious lyrics discussing the problems faced by a newly urbanised youth.  Amazing percussion.
Certainly my cup of tea and maybe its yours too.



Tracklist:

01 Ala Rabi Ayahbib Amzate Elkhatri - Tidink Elbarrad Aoua
02 Amtaou Hoy
03 Addounite Tazri
04 Aoudass Atassanou
05 Iz'am Amdlous

Get it HERE.

Archach (again)

Okay...there are 6 songs on this fine cassette and I don't know the titles of any of them so, as usual, any information you good people could provide would be greatly appreciated.  Anyone who's listened to the previous Archach posts will know what to expect, gorgeous pastoral Berber pop music from this Souss Valley superstar.

Enjoy.

Get it HERE.

Ammouri Mbarek - Nekk Dik A Nmun (1978)

Here's another of the cassettes I picked up on my most recent Marrakech excursion.  This one is quite unusual in that the guitar, violin and flute take centre stage on these recordings and help Mbarek develop a very gentle, pastoral backing for his songs. This album was recorded and released in the year that Mbarek split from the group Ousman, another of the groups (alongside Nass El Ghiwane, Lemchaheb, Jil Jilala and Izenzaren) credited with spearheading a resurgence in the use of the Berber dialects in Moroccan popular culture.

Tracklist:

01     Nik Dik
02     Taghlaghal
03     Isksiten
04     Wayahou
05     Ourti Nlouz
06     Izwa Ifri
07     Amtta Oul

Get it HERE.

IZMAZ (1979)

Izmaz started playing in 1976 and featured a young Ali Chouhad, who later went on to form Archach. This is beautiful, raw banjo led mountain music from the Issaffen region of Southern Morocco, and you absolutely need it. By the time the guimbri kicks in at 5:25 I'm halfway to the stars:

Any more info about this tape, and the group more generally would be much appreciated. In the meantime, get it HERE.

Update 03/04/2012!

Thanks to Hammer from Audiotopia for the wealth of info about this cassette and IZMAZ. According to Hammer, this was the group's second album - their first will follow in a later post you lucky, lucky people!

J-Card Info:
Face-A:
Ma Trai'eit El-Mout ('Haven't Seen Death')- Ayhaya - Anshad ('Songs').
Face-B:
Lalla Oumali ('Lalla What's Wrong With Me?') - Tagrist - Manfanhoul - Azoul Flak ('The Vanishing Horizons').

Members:
Mohammed Khaledi Ba'Yazid
Abdallah Al-A'arfi
L'Hassan El-Werdi
Abdelateef Fehmi
Mohammed Dammou

Birth-place: Tafroun - Casablanca 'Eddar El-Bedha', Morocco.

Chronology: Formed in the late 60's. Started playing from 1973 till late summer, 1975. Lineup changed a lot in the early 80's. Disbanded in 1986.

Description: An Amazigh-Soussian band who followed suit of an earlier Moroccan Amazigh band (Osman), that played music influenced by western pop artists and reggae lords like Bob Marley.
The style became known as Tazinzart; a Ghwenai kinda fusion of rock and traditional 'Ruweis' sounds. Izmaz started as a theatrical group featuring friends Mohammed Khaledi (known as Ba'Yazid), and Abdallah Al-A'arfi (known as 'El-Maghreb') with a third member L'Hassan El-Werdi O'Salim playing their lotar/rabab/naqous traditional instruments.

They left Tefrawat the small village where they all hailed from and moved to Casablanca contacting Ali Shouhad: a well-known musician from Issafen Nit Haroun district near Tata town who lived in Zangat Louzitania, and used to frequent a cafe-lietraire in Casablanca called Le Joie. Ali Shouhad showed interest in joining them. Moulawi Ali joined them finally in 1976 after relocating to Casablanca.

Their early days of performing together were in 1973, singing at Moroccan popular celebrations like King Hassan II's Ascendance to the throne, and some private public parties. The band decided then to go full-circle with the public, naming their selves first in 1975 Inrin. Their first successful concert playing as Izmaz took place at The Public Theatre celebrating The Green March revolution. Later on in 1977 Mohammed Dammou joined as a gnawist along with ex-member Ibrahim Koko who performed with the band in one cassette album before quitting them.

In 1979, Ali Shouhad left the band to form Archach, and Fehmi Abdelateef took Ali's place as a percussionist. The band toured France and Belgium later that year, playing for the Moroccan immigres. In 1986, a piracy-related court case was held against some company who copied their cassette albums without the group's consent. The case dragged on for years, causing most members (Mohammed Dammou) to leave disbanding Izmaz, ultimately.

Discography:
1.) EL-Sakhi Disc 'Rouatagh Ik Inmon' - 1978.
2.) Sharitifon 'Izmaz' - 1979.

Accomplishments:
-Izmaz is credited to inventing a new 'meld' instrument which joined three already established ones (Rbab Soussi/Lotar/Tssouissit) into one instrument.
-Ali Shouhad is credited for forming a 100-strong Amazighian symphony which was such a feat musically speaking at that time.

ENJOY!

Jil Jilala - mystery cassette

Jil Jilala were (alongside Nass el Ghiwane and Lemchaheb) one of the trinity of groups that emerged in the late '60s and early '70s with the intention of rejuvenating Moroccan folk musics. Formed in 1972 by members of a Sufi theatre group, the band based many of their songs on the religious and spiritual poetry of the Sufi brotherhoods.
In this video you can see the famous Gnawi, Mustafa Bakbou playing guimbri with the group:

Tracklist:

Side 1: Leklam Lemrassa3 (Adorned Talk) - Lighara (The Raid)- Lejwad (The Good People)
Side 2: Al Quds (Jerusalem) - Liyam Tnadi (The Days Are Calling)- Dada Oumie (My Elderly Mother)

Thanks as always to Tim for the translations and to Hammer for the translation to Enlglish. Much appreciated fellas!

Hear the cassette HERE.

Rais Mohamed Outhnaout

It's been a long time since I posted any music from Morocco as I've been too busy trying to keep up with the gorgeous deluge of Mauresque sounds coming out of the fantastic Moroccan Tape Stash to bother posting any of the stuff I have sitting here in my living room. However, I've been playing this tape quite a bit recently and I'm loving the infectious playfulness of it all. The man with the guitar is Rais Mohamed Outhnaout, a musician from Marrakech. I can't find any biography or anything on the internet (Wikipedia is blacked out today!) but there are lots of fairly recent videos of his performances of youtube. Here's one I picked almost at random:


No tracklist I'm afraid, but you can get it HERE.

As usual, any info or help with translations would be much appreciated.

An Evening with Snap Crackle & Pop Volume 1

It's strange how elastic time has become, or maybe has always been. I've been posting here at Snap, Crackle and Pop for just over three years now so I thought it was HIGH TIME for a little mix - around my musical world in 75 minutes or so.





Here is the tracklist, and you'll find that clicking on the artist's name will take you to the original post. Handy eh?

Tracklist:

01 Nico Pourvu & His Romanian Orchestra - Doina de la Titu (Romania)
02 Manitas de Plata - Maure Eglise (Spain)
03 Unknown Artist - Mahjoula (Morocco)
04 Sabah - Dakhlak Tell ou Hakina (Lebanon)
05 Archie Shepp - Blase (USA)
06 Stock, Hausen & Walkman - Gruel (UK)
07 Erkin Koray - Cemalim (Turkey)
08 Simon Jurad - Ambiance Nous (Martinique)
09 R.D. Burman - Dum Maro Dum (India)
10 M'Pongo Love - Ede (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
11 Tabu Ley - Dialogue (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
12 Ann Peebles - Do I Need You? (USA)
13 The Peddlers - On a Clear Day (UK)
14 King Sunny Ade - Akura Nile (Nigeria)
15 Tony Tuff - Jah Almighty (Jamaica)
16 Marehemu George Mukabi - Bibi Mama Ngani Mzuri (Kenya)
17 Los Guaraguao - Juventud Adelante (Mexico)
18 Conjunto Sol Del Peru - Paras Shayan (Peru)
19 Bongwater - One So Black (USA)
20 Maalem El Mansoum - Uled Bambara (Morocco)

Get it HERE.

Groupe Archach

Here is another of the cassettes I picked up in Marrakech recently. This is vintage stuff from Ali Chouhad and Groupe Archach. Beautiful, meditative and poetic Tachelhit music from the Souss region - fantastic banjo going on here and great percussion, if you liked Izenzaren, you'll love this. This one looks like it was first released in the early '80s judging by the fashions on display in the cover photograph.

I posted a more recent cd by this group some time ago, and that one is wonderful too.

Here's some fantastic archive footage of the band in action to whet your appetite:

Archache "Agharas issoutln orass nzdar" by titrit_2

Tracklist:

Side One: Ash-Shabab / Arja f-Llahi
Side Two: Temment Noujdik / Alili war l-Khayr

In the meanwhile, get it HERE.

Nights on the Place of Dead Roads

"The most important single element of Morocco's folk culture is its music...the entire history and mythology of the people is clothed in song"

Paul Bowles Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands are Blue

In March this year I spent five perfect days in Marrakech. I had flown into the city full of grand plans - I was to go record hunting in Casablanca, I would catch a bus up the Ourika Valley and spend two days walking in the mountains. Of course I did neither of these things - the chaos and excitement of life in the medina sucked me in and wouldn't let go. I spent my days wandering the narrow streets making a mental map of the labyrinth at the heart of the ancient city. Each night as darkness fell I would wander from my hotel to the Djemaa El Fna - the Assembly of the Dead - to lose myself in the crowds at this unique, permanent festival.

Over the four nights I spent wandering from halqah to halqah I was treated to some incredible music and performances, and what really struck me on this visit was how communal and participatory the performances are. The crowds which gather around the musicians show their appreciation for a good rendition by singing along. The resulting sounds can be electrifying.

Follow the link below and you'll find 50 something minutes of recordings from the square made between March 3rd and March 7th this year. In posting these recordings, my thoughts go out to all those affected by the bomb that went off in the Cafe Argana on Aprl 28th, and to the thousands of Moroccans who attended the pro peace and pro democracy marches over the following weekends.

Nights on the Place of Dead Roads

Haj Omar Wahrouche (REPOST)

Apologies to anyone who downloaded this from the earlier post, I had forgotten to boost the volume on the files and so the whole thing sounded very quiet. This should be a massive improvement.

Haj Omar Wahrouche was one of a wave of more traditional Berber songwriters popular before the likes of Nass El Ghiwane and Izenzaren started to blend the music with western instruments and more politicised lyrics. The chap I bought this tape from told me his father was a fan of this man and his music. This is some beautiful stuff I'm sure you'll agree.
Here is some footage of the rabab playing man in shades:


Raiss Omar wahrouch ahrouch by ouchrif

Tracklist:

Side One
Side Two

Get it HERE.

Lemchaheb

Lemchaheb, or The Torches, were along with Nass El Ghiwane and Jil Jilala, one of the founding groups of Moroccan Chaabi, a popular musical form that sought to blend traditional Moroccan folk music styles with Western pop styles to create an idiosyncratic sound. By the late seventies, Lemchaheb's music was charecterised by their use of the electric guitar, but that's nowhere to be heard on this beautiful early recording which instead features the gorgeous vocals of Saida Birouk, the female band member who was part of the group until 1978.

Lemchaheb's sound on these recordings is very melodic and quite gentle, in contrast to some of the other Moroccan music I've posted in the past, which might make it a good point of entry for the wary. The group are still well loved in Morocco and you may hear some of their songs being played by the groups of musicians that congregate in the Djemaa el Fna.

Here's a track from their 1978 album:


Tracklist:

Side 1:
Lkhyala
Amana
Alwad
Attalab

Side 2:
Wana A Ommi
Lalla Lakbira
Kif Nghanni Ya Sah

Get it HERE.

Izanzaren! Izenzaren!! Izenzarn!!!

Ok, I'm back from a quick trip to Marrakech and I come back bearing some musical goodies. I thought we could begin with some more beguiling music from Snap, Crackle and Pop favourites, Izanzaren. Anyone who visits regularly may have heard some of the music posted back in 2009 by this important group, if you haven't then there's about 3 hours of songs to be found here, here and here.

I was further impressed when I discovered that Izanzaren (or Izenzaren, Izenzarn) translates as Sunbeams, which strikes me as a particularly sublime moniker for a musical combo.



Tracklist:

1a)Ddunit tga Izmaz
1b)Imhdan
2a)Imrjan n Rbbi
2b)Tassutad

Thanks to Tim for translating the songtitles. You're work is much appreciated.

Get it HERE.

Maimoona: Music of the Rif Mountains

As a special festive treat, here is the last of Uncle David's Moroccan cassettes, and this one's a complete mystery. The words 'Maimoona: Music of Rif' are handwritten on the label and this is the only clue we have to go on. The music is completely timeless, and this cassette could possibly be a complilation of songs recorded from other cassettes, but in the end, I'm as clueless as everyone else.



Tracklist:

Side One
Side Two

Get it HERE.

More Amazigh Music from Fatima Tabaamrant and Rais Moulay Mohamed ben Lefqih

Here is another of Uncle David's wonderful cassettes, and I think this one may be my favourite. I believe the lady in the picture is Fatima Tabaamrant who was featured in this previous post way back in 2009 following a trip up the Souss Valley and on into the Anti-Atlas mountains. She is not the main voice heard in these wonderful songs however, and any help identifying the male lead singer would be much appreciated.
Anyway if you're a fan of the frantic banjo and rabab music of the Moroccan Berbers then you're in for a proper treat with this one. It's great!



Tracklist:

1A) Tandamt
1B) Izda Zine
2A) Allah Inser Siydna
2B) La ilaha illa Llah

Get it HERE.

Mystery Cassette from Morocco

Well, here are some mysterious grooves from Morocco courtesy of Uncle David. I can give you absolutely no information about this one, any info you could provide would be much appreciated. The music is hypnotic, trance inducing pipe and drum workouts. Gets pretty frenzied at times. Give it a try, you might like it.

Tracklist:

Side 1
Side 2

Get it HERE.

Raissa Rkya Damcyria - Berber Music from Morocco

Last weekend my girlfriend and I went to a family party where Uncle David lent me a bunch of tapes that he got whilst travelling a few years back. So thanks to Uncle David for giving us this taste of the fabulous Raissa Rkya Damcyria (or Demssirya, Damsirya, or Talbensirt). This is beautiful, hectic music from the Souss Valley of Southern Morocco. Can't say much about this other than it features amazing rabab playing and this ringing percussion instrument that really bends the mind after a while:

RAISSA RKYA TALBENSIRT
Uploaded by imintapro. - See the latest featured music videos.

Tracklist:

Side 1
Side 2

Get it HERE.