Out last month, a fabulous second LP by the French-Moroccan quartet who fuse traditional with psychedelia, blues and heavy rock with Africa's Maghreb: Gnawa, Amazigh, Hassani and Houara music. Enjoy the mesmeric voice of Moroccan frontwoman Yousra Mansour whose instruments include electric awisha, electric mandol, electric guembri, qraqeb, electric ribab (a key mystical single-string violin instrument), bendir, tbal, taarija, as well as mult-instrumentalist Brice Bottin variously on electric guembri, guitar, banjo, peul flûte, keyboards, qraqeb, bendir, cowbell, bongos, taarija, dub siren, and gong. Their influences include Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Nass El Ghiwane, Morocco's very own Rolling Stones, but more political in nature as social justice warriors. Highlights include Imazighen, a celebration of the richness of ethnic diversity. The song's refrain ('We (North African natives) are all true Amazighs') is sung in Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh Berbers, Mansour's ancestors. Another is AmmA, a very danceable track infused with flutes, percussion and looping chords, and where Mansour's passionate ululations express a warrior feel that recalls the traditional Maori haka war dance. "Awaken, women/Rise, women/I am not half a man/That time is over." Others include Wahia Wahia, IAWIAW Funk, the Arabo-Andalusian influence Karma (what goes around comes around) is a song about what goes around, fighting song Li Maana, and closer Mouja ('Wave after wave'), an AC/DC-Led Zeppelin swirl of rock and Moroccan magic. Stirring, enegetised, electrifying work from start to finish. Out on Real World Records.
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