Maalam Soudani | Essoauira (1999) (FLAC re-up)

I've re-ripped this cassette in FLAC at correct speed. Get it here.

Original post:

Another cassette from the Algerian bodega here in Astoria, this time a terrific gnawa recording featuring vocals, tbal, and gimbri, the latter presumably plucked by our man decked out above, Maalam Soudani.

I mentioned this cassette on my show last week and, unless misunderstood him, Tim wrote in the comments that he knew Soudani back in the day in Essoauira.

If we're lucky, perhaps Tim will share with us what he knows about Soudani's life and work; I wasn't able to find anything about him online, but the music is [squeezes fingers together and presses them to lips] ... mmmwah!

Link to download [and Tim's reply!] in comments.

Mahmoud Kania | Essaouira

Listen to track 1

Reupped the 16-track album here

[Originally posted on December 2, 2013.] I've got a number of gnawa and chaabi CDs that I've yet to post -- I suppose I've been reluctant in the past for two reasons: (a) I can't translate/or even transliterate the tracklists for you and (b) I don't know much about either genre, other than what each, generally, sounds like. Most were plucked from the Moroccan aisle of the late, great Princess Music in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; a few were brought back home with me from a trip to Marrakech. 

In the case of this morning's offering, I'm almost certain I picked it up in Marrakech, though I'm not 100% sure. While it looks like the CD version of this cassette posted by the mighty Tim at the xtremely fabulous Moroccan Tape Stash, the CD version here has 6 more songs, so could either be the cassette + 6 or simply a bunch of different songs with a similar cover image. If we're nice, perhaps Tim will hip us to what we've got here. 

[UPDATE: Special thanks to Tim, who provides a track list in the comments below.]

Hamid El Kasri | Bouhala Gnawa

Listen to "Saadi Belwali"

I pooshed it back up to webby web b/c U askit 4 it, here.

[Originally posted on Dec 17, 2013.] Another CD I brought home from a trip to Marrakech. Hamid El Kasri hails originally from Ksar El Kbir, thus his moniker "El Kasri," which literally translates as "dude B from Ksar." 

For the past week & change I've been wiped out with the flu, the sickest I've been in three years. On Sunday, having mostly recovered, but not quite enough to really venture out, I spent a long, leisurely day organizing my CDs ... which means, my pretties, I have near-instantaneous access to everything.

Sit back. Take your shoes off. It's time to crank up the heat in the ol' bodega ...

Mysterious Gnawa CD

Listen to the first track

Freshly reupped by special request, here.

[Originally posted on Dec 21, 2013.] I bought this CD from someone on the street in Marrakech for the equivalent of US fifty cents. It's an obvious bootlet, burned into a blank CD with a color laser printed cover. The cover says it's El Marhoum Sam & Hmida Boussou, but the metadata begs to differ. It thinks this CD is Gnawa Leila Vol. 4 - Red & Green Suites by Bel Ahmer and Khder Chorfa. 

Whatever the case, it's definitely gnawa. And now it's yours.

Nass El Ghiwane | Ennehla Chama

Listen to "Jari"

Get it all here.

You find yourself among words: "people," "faces," "clothing," "teeth" and "hair." And words. And many words. The meaningless hegemony of the involuntary. The wet words touch your shoulders on each side. When words are there you care that they are there. Like them, you too want to get as far away as possible from where you were born. 

Words are like cushions to protect us from the knowledge of isolation. The screen here's very strange. When you look "into" it you often have the sensation that it is not a solid thing, protecting you from what's behind. Nothing, no words. We've never managed to get all the way away from them.

Words blow along the ground into his mouth as he sings.

Apologies to Paul Bowles.


[Don't miss Bodega Pop's 10 Best Albums of 2012.]

Nass el Ghiwane | 2000 CD

Listen to track 5 

Get it all here.

Even before discovering the real significance of these guys via Tim Abdellah's thrilling Moroccan Tape Stash,  I knew there was something special about this band on first listen. They just didn't sound quite like any other north African music I'd ever picked up--they were funkier, maybe even somehow more "knowing." I'm almost certain I found this in the Nile Deli on Steinway Street, but exactly when, I'm no longer sure. I do have a vague recollection of my thought process, which was something like: "Are those supposed to be guitar picks? This album must totally rock. ..."

Forgive me for the lack of song titles, but here is what looks like a track list on the CD itself: