New FLAC Cassette Rip! Spice Ray | Spice Ray

I've re-ripped this terrific Moroccan cassette from a new TASCAM cassette deck in FLAC. Thanks again to Tim of Moroccan Tape Stash for translation of the track titles!

Get it here

Original post (from December 2017):

Another cassette found on the grimy shelves of Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery in Astoria, Queens, Spice Ray is almost certainly an attempt to piggy back on the success of nineties Britpop sensations, Spice Girls. 

And that is precisely the point where any similarity between Spice Girls and Spice Ray evaporates like the 91% alcohol I used to clean the tape head prior to ripping this distinctly odd example of Moroccan pop.

I had erroneously thought this was an Algerian album; it is not. First, an Algerian in an Algerian music collectors' group on FB let me know it wasn't Algerian, and then our blog neighbor Tim confirmed that it indeed sounds Moroccan, not Algerian.

Tim sent along a track list and two bits of info about the cassette: 1) Mustapha Talbi is credited as the composer; and 2) the first track, "Mhemma Ikoun," is a song complaining about the deaths of children in Iraq. As Tim surmises, this cassette is likely late 90s, around the time the U.S. under the Clinton administration was bombing Iraq.

Here's Tim's transliteration of the track list:

1) Mhemma ikoun

2) Lemwima

3) Mama mia

4) Hala

5) Lillah

6) Instrumental

7) Yaoudarouha

Link to download in the comments.