Rough Guide To Morocco

Rough Guide to Morocco
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/12/12
Variety of Moroccan musical styles, from very traditional to Hip-Hop, with quite a few stylistic mashups (which are the tracks I like best – you may differ…)
CD 1:
1. 4:19 ***groovy but trance-like Gnawa groove, gradually adding Hip-Hop elements, turns into syncopated bass-driven sway with Morocco’s first rapper.
2. 8:29 **very pretty stringed instrument intro (mandal), high and low vocal duet, subtle, relaxed, seemingly timeless. Speeds up at end.
3. 5:22 ***cinematic, echo-y orchestral intro, turning funky electronic after a minute, with traditional sounding vocal duet. Glitchy. Interesting mashup.
4. 6:50 **traditional stringed instrument (lothar: 4-stringed lute) solo intro, then slow hand drum beat, vocal duet. Berber love song, very “folky.”
5. 5:19 ***vocal mic check in English, fuzzy Gnawa boom-bap, rap in English. Electric guitar, electronics, traditional Moroccan elements – interesting.
6. 5:24 ***popular “Chaabi” music, attractive sound, uptempo backbeat, vocal chorus, acoustic guitar with some western instruments (notably electric bass) and hand drums. Speeds up during song, but stays pretty.
7. 7:22 **classic solo lower-key stringed Gnawa intro, African Sufi trance music. Clackers start almost a minute into the song, rough vocals and chorus.
8. 4:37 **electronics intro, then very slow boom-bap. Sounds very “Western” but crew raps in Arabic.
9. 6:09 **far-away bowed instrument, solo vocal lament with very intricate flourishes. Pretty flute… Apparently Jewish-Moroccan with Andalucian musical influences. Very sparse and traditional.
10. 4:58 ***”Chaabi-groove” – sweet combination of Western pop/funk with traditional styles. Swingy, a bit of a Latin groove.
11. 5:47 **traditional flutes and hand drums. These are the guys “discovered” by Brian Jones back in the 60’s.
CD 2 (Groupe Magazan): Modern Moroccan-Western mashup. Vocalist sounds rather like Khaled. Definitely NOT all sounding the same…
1. 3:57 **a French café feel, with a bit of club funk.
2. 4:26 **long electric intro, sort of Euro-80’s feel, vocals both in Arabic and English. And in Spanish! Huh!
3. 4:22 ***complex beat and musical influences, uptempo. Bit of Gnawa, bit of Latin tinge, bit of Rai, bit of Western pop.
4. 3:50 ***pretty, complex rhythm, pronounced Latin inflection, funky wah-wah guitar.
5. 4:10 **very downtempo, wah-way guitar and violins. Quite complex, again, changes tempo and feel a few times.
6. 3:10 **pop sound, a bit jazzy-Latiny, pretty. Ends with electronic echoes.
7. 4:14 ***electric guitars and orchestral bits, and electronics. Upbeat, electric guitar and violin, Rai stylings.
8. 3:39 **upbeat, gnawa clackers and Celtic tune. Interesting mashup.
9. 2:17 **café=style piano, Islamic chanting vocals (Sufi?)
10. 3:08 **elaborate guitar line, café-jazzy instrumental. Gets a bit of a ska back-beat. Didn’t see that coming!
11. 4:15 ***almost heavy metal bass and guitar chords, but with a funky beat and electronics.