Groupe Ouled Chtiwi | Sawt al Ochat cassette

 

This morning's offering is what Moroccan Tape Stash's Tim Abdellah (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIM!!!) describes as "cassette-era chaabi, heavy on the aita." I found this, along with dozens of other cassettes I have yet to share, at Naseem Meat Market & Grocery on Steinway Street here in beautiful Astoria. The store has long since closed and reopened under new ownership with a new name, but I owe a quarter to a third of my cassette collection to that place, a goldmine back in the day.

Not wanting to bother the aforementioned Tim, I made an attempt to identify, transliterate, and (when possible) translate all of the tracks using Google translate, but it was ultimately a mystery as the number of titles on the cover didn't seem to correspond to what I was seeing and hearing in Audacity.

I gave in and sent the files to Tim, who realized that part of the problem is that the track order appears to be flipped. I've updated them in the metadata and now offer the FLAC files to you, dear visitor, for your listening pleasure.

Here is Tim's corrected transliteration/translation/order and notes on tracks 2-5:

Groupe Ouled Chtiwi مجموعة اولاد الشتيوي

Sawt al Ochak cassette صوط العشاق

1) Al Ghorba (Alienation) الغربة

2) Ana Lghram (Me and Lovesickness) انا الغرام

3) Kachkoul Aswaken (Medley: The Residents)  كشكول السواكن

4) Jaaidan - Al Halga - Al Ghaba (جعيدان -الحلگة - الغابة)

5) (Taarida)

--

Track 2: Your translation of "Ana Lghram" is correct for title as written. But listening to the vocals he says "ana w lghram, ma3andi tbib ana", which means something like "me and lovesickness, i have no doctor, me". So I would go with "Me and Lovesickness" for the translation.

Track 3: I didn't know the term "kachkoul" before, which Google translates as "notebook" or "patchwork". But looking around on YouTube, I get the idea that in a musical context it means something like a medley. The track is definitely related to Swaken - it's a term used in Aita that means "residents", in the sense of those possessor spirits whose residence in bodies manifests during trance.

Track 4: The terms Jaaidan and Halga are new to me. They appear to be Aita pieces, and I found different versions of them on YouTube that sound like parts of this long medley. I do know Al Ghaba (the forest), which is a well-known chaabi/aita song but I don't hear it in Track 4 or Track 5.

Track 5: This seems like just a filler instrumental to run out the tape. I usually label these "Taarida", which is a term used for formulaic musical instrumentals, and it literally means "making wider", or "stretching out". So I used that here for Track 5 title.

It's a terrific ride. As often is the case, massive thanks to Tim! Link in the comments.

Orchestra Zeitouni | FLAC cassette rip

 

Here's a high-energy Moroccan cassette I found at Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery on Steinway Street, walking distance from my place here in Astoria, Queens.

There is no track list for this cassette, not on the J-card, not on either side of the cassette itself.

The kamenjah on the cover is featured prominently throughout. Supporting it: Percussion, guinbri, keyboard (barely detectable rhythmic pumping on Side 1, Track 3; a bit more prominent on Side 2), and vocals.

Grab it now (link in the comments) 

Massnawa | Cassette FLAC rip

 

I know next to nothing about Massnawa, other than that they are a Moroccan group, in the ballpark of similar Moroccans Lemchaheb, Jil Jilala, and Nass El Ghiwane.

I don't even know what year this cassette is from; no one has yet added this album to Massnawa's Discogs page.

All I can tell you is that it is one of the most inventive Moroccan albums I've ever heard and I doubt you'll feel any different.

TRACKLIST

Side 1
Rujue Hayya رجوع هيئة

Warda Fi Al Sahra وردة في الصحراء

Side 2

Al Gharib الغريب

Sidi Moussa Ben Ali سيدي موسي ابن عاي

Mawsim Al Sayda موسم الصيدة

Link in the comments. Grab it while you can.

Orchestra Abdel Hamid | FLAC cassette rip

 

I've had this Moroccan cassette for years, something I picked up on Steinway Street's Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery long before the owner sold the store. This is an enjoyable ride, with bursts of punchy strings and organ fills -- are they real strings and organ or synth? -- over a driving, complex but steady, rocking beat. Terrific, subtly emotive vocals, with call-and-response chorus.

I've made a first attempt at a track list, but I don't entirely trust my transliteration skills. Worth noting that most of the songs bleed into each other, thus tracks 2 and 3 on Side One are really two songs, and Side Two is a continuous track consisting of four songs.

SIDE ONE

Awad عواد

Fatna فاطنة and Taxi تکایسي

Ana Al Maebud Allah أنا المعبود الله and Alalat Rah Kwany  الالة راه کواني

SIDE TWO

Ma Yuqit Lak Qabar ما يقيت لك  قابار and Mimai Dariha ميمىي دارها and Eayt Ana Manhbur عيت أنا مانحبر and Malo Malo مالو مالو

Link to FLAC files in the comments. If you're still downloading things from here, it would nice to hear from you. Leave a message, say hello.

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.

Orchestre Jamal | Mazhariphone Cassette (FLAC reup)

Thrilled to have re-ripped this amazing cassette at true speed in FLAC. Details below. Thanks to Tim at Moroccan Tape Stash for transliterations and details.

Grab it here.

Original post:

Confession: I went *back* to Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery here in Astoria, and, after a long conversation with Houssain, found another 40 grime-encrusted cassettes hidden in Nassem's nooks and crannies. Well, technically 38, as two of them were duplicates of a Zehouani tape I'd already picked up, but which was too old and worn to play. These cassettes come from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. As you've already suspected: Today's offering is from that last haul.

Thanks to the supercollector known as Mehdi J Blige, we know this is by Orchestra Djamal (or Jamal). Thanks to the J-card, we know the publisher is Mazhariphone. Thanks to our ears, we believe this might be the single most psychedelic cassette we've ever heard from al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah. 

It's possible that this is the same Orchestra Jamal as in this video:

The sound is vaguely similar and the lead vocal is in the same youthful ballpark as on the tape. Speaking of which, let's talk about the tape in depth.

Side 1 kicks off with a plaintive, haunting string solo, aching and bending upward, until it opens a window for the lead male's voice, and a guitar that lays down a soft-strummed, spider-web thin scaffolding reminiscent of Omar Korshid at his most subtle. The kid's voice, as you'd gather from the cover above, is youthful, almost feminine. He starts off reciting and, as the track develops, begins to sing. At which point, any concern I had that this might be some kind of novelty or vanity project evaporates. The kid has soul. Deep, lived soul.

Just shy of the two-minute mark, the percussion and some sort of barely perceptible keyboard kick in. The drums -- which are nearly isolated in the mid-to-left-hand channel -- sound like a Moroccan Jaki Liebezeit is taking them out for a test drive. I have never, never-ever, heard a kit being played like this on a Moroccan recording. (If we're lucky, Tim might let us know whether they strike his more acutely trained ears as unusual.) The guitar lopes along, breaking out into occasional fuzz-toned fills.

The second track is where things start to get mind-melty. I don't know the specific instrument that opens the track, but it's some form of keyboard or synthesizer, and very trippy. The strings and Jaki Liebezeit kit kick in, followed by a sudden trill of mechanized ululation that swooshes across the sonic landscape. The kid and an adult male chorus trade phrases. 

This is not psychedelic in the normative sense. The architecture feels rooted squarely in Moroccan chaabi; it's in the fills and trills where things get freaky. 

And it's on Side 2 that the psychedelia gets turned up, especially the second and final track. I'm not going to attempt to describe it, other than to note that the synthesizer and guitar do things in this 11+ minute scorcher -- and we're still *technically* talking fills -- that make my head spin. 

And perhaps, dear reader, your head as well?

Link to the cassette rip in comments. 

Ould Mbarek & Milouda Ouhada | Great Concert in the City of Khouribga (FLAC re-up)

A re-rip at correct speed in FLAC. Get it here.

Original Post:

Thanks once again to Tim Abdellah Fuson of Moroccan Tape Stash for translation and a bit of context. Take a listen, read a bit, download (link in comments).

A terrific Moroccan cassette with superfine playing, frenetic energy, and expressive vocals. Likely from the late 1980s or early 90s. Tim has posted other rocking examples of Zaêri on MTS; if you like this one, there's a lot more of this kind of thing there. (Though I should admit that I'm altogether unclear what, exactly, Zaêri means.)  

Another incredible gem from last year's massive haul at Naseem Meat Market & Grocery right in in Astoria, Queens.

Mohamed el Marrakchi | Fassi Disque Cassette | FLAC re-rip

As you've probably noticed by now, I've been (not-exactly-systematically) ripping my cassette collection, including re-ripping earlier ripped tapes.

Why re-rip? Because there were a number of problems with my previous cassette deck. 

First, the sound was not terribly great. It was, at best flat. Second, it ran slow. At least 5.5% slow, because that's about the percentage at which I used to have to speed up rips in Audacity.

And I'm re-sharing re-rips with you because, my gosh! These things sounds amazing. Well, okay. Some of them sound amazing.

This one is one of the amazing ones. Even if you've got the earlier version I posted, get this one. It sounds [*chef's kiss*].

Get it here.

Original post (from 2017):

Hey, kids; here's our second cassette-to-digital offering, plucked from the shelves of Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery in Astoria, Queens. Super Bodega Pop thanks to hero blogger and musician Tim Abdellah Fuson for translation, transliteration, and context.

This is a beautiful and hypnotic recording, as you can hear for yourself on last night's Bodega Pop Live program, where I played يا عشقين نبينا (Ya Âshqin Nabina) in the penultimate set. 

Here's what Tim has to say about the cassette:

"Side 1 sounds like Aissawa-style religious songs, while Side 2 are melhoun-style songs in honor of the Prophet. Nice textures -- it's a modern chaâbi orchestra from the time before keyboards intruded into the texture. I can hear what sounds like electric guitar, bass, and drum set, along with the strings."

As Tim also noted: while someone named Mohamad el Marrakchi sounds as if they are from Marrakech, the music is "hella Fassi"; in polite English, from Fez. (Not surprising, considering this is a Fassi Disque tape.)

Track List:

Side A: Hali ma yekhfaq yal wahed Rbbi (حالي ما يخفاق يالواحد ربي), Ya Âshqin Nabina (يا عشقين نبينا)

Side B, Track 1: Nta Lâziz ya Muhammad (انت العزيز يا محمد)
Side B, Track 2: Lhorm ya Rasul Allah (الحرم يا رسول الله)

As I mentioned a few days ago, I picked up somewhere around 40 cassettes at Nassem; now, I don't want to startle you, but I went back today and picked up at least another 30 -- I thought I had gotten everything, but ... no. 

So? 

So, there's going to be a lot of cassette digitizing going on at the Bodega for the foreseeable future.

Link to cassette rip in comments.

Please leave a comment of your own if you like what you hear. Your comments -- or lack thereof -- will make or break this blog's second wind.

Ghazal Al-Harizi | Al Khouidem FLAC

 

As promised in an earlier post, here's the second volume of two that we found on the shelves of Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery on Steinway Street several years ago.

Thanks again to Tim of Moroccan Tape Stash for the transliterations. Here's Tim's track list (note that, sonically, each side is a single, unbroken track, and I have thus not edited them into sections):

SIDE A

Al Khouidem - الجويدم

Maghnia - مغنية

Moula Baghdad - مولا بغداد

Touichia - تويشية

Hjerti ou T'haouel - هجرتي وتحول

Zaêri - زعري

SIDE B

Ben Âchir - ن\بن عشير

Malika al Gharbaouia - مليكة الغرباوية

Âlam al Khayl - علام الخيل

Raqsa âla L-Qa3da - رقصة على القعدة

Âwelti ou Mchiti Qata3 L-Bhour - عولتي ومشيتي قاتع البحور

Al-Ghaba - الغابة

Fair warning, Side A begins with a phase shift sound that works itself out after a minute or two. I tried re-ripping it, but the sound is clearly part of the original.

Get it here.

Ghazal Al-Harizi | Al-Amrawia FLAC

 

This raucous, energetic performance comes from the first of a pair of cassettes I'll be sharing that I found at the Nassem Halal Meat and Mediterranean Grocery on Steinway Street several years ago.

I've found nothing about the artist, Ghazal Al-Harizi (The Star Ghazal Al-Harizi on the J-card, or النجم غزال الحريزي), other than a couple of videos on YouTube.

Update: Tim Abdellah of the great Moroccan Tape Stash points to this Internet Archive posting of another cassette by the artist, transliterated there as Ghazal Lahrizi.

Tim's transliteration of the track list:

SIDE A

Al Amraouia - العمراوية

Halekni B-Nnkhwa - هالكني بالنخوى

Lli jabtou lqudra ishki b-dnoubou - لي جابتو القدرة يشكي بدنوبو

Lhit - الهيت

Sayeh Bu Derbala - السايح بودربالة

SIDE B

Sherqawi Buâbid - الشرقاوي بوعبيد

Ben Hsein - بن حسين

Âla Lhoudoud hah - على الحدود هاه

Al Halga - الحلـڭـة

And a note from Tim after a first listen: "Nice stuff - I'd put it in the chaabi category. The use of the lotar is cool and unusual. Heavy on the bendirs. 2nd tune on Side A is a version of Rouicha's 'Afak Al Hwa Hda 3liya.' Despite these Middle Atlas elements, the overall feel is more like stuff from Casablanca, which is where the label originates from. Well, the cover does state 'New Style (literally, new color) - لون جديد,' so I guess he was trying to mix things up a bit!"

Grab it here.

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.

A Trip to Nouri Brothers

Discs plucked from the shelves of Paterson, New Jersey's greatest self-proclaimed"shopping center": Nouri Brothers, where new stock butts heads with decades-old, dust-covered gems we didn't even know were available on this continent.

This three-hour tribute features Morocco's Grande Voix d'el Aita, Syria's King of the Oud, some long out-of-print Oum Kalsoum, mid-period Nass El Gihwane and Jil Jilala, nascent raï, jaw-droppingly rare Fayza Ahmed, and much, much more.

Listen to the show in the archives

Moulay Omar | Shikhat el Haouz

A recent find at Nassem Halal Meat & Mediterranean Grocery, an Algerian bodega in Astoria. Opened by Noudine Bahri several decades ago (I'm assuming 1980s, but not sure), the place is now managed by a Mexican-American guy who told me his name is Houssain and who began working there about 1997, the year I moved to New York.

I had no idea who the man pictured on the J-card was, but assumed Moroccan, based solely on the djellaba he's sporting over his button-down shirt. Tim and Hammer confirmed my suspicion.

As Tim wrote: "Don't recognize him, but he's certainly Moroccan. The label on the J-card and the tape shell denotes Sawt el Mounadi, an imprint out of Marrakech. Some of the most bitchin' tapes in my stash are on that label. The card reads: 'Shikh Moulay Omar and Shikhat el Haouz,' so this ought to be some fine Aita Houzia!"

Hammer: "You got it all right, Tim. This is Moulay Omar a singer from Ahwaz Marrakesh who saw some mediocre fame in the late 70s in Morocco. The Sheikhat who sang this style in Morocco (Aita Houzia), were very few."

The sound quality on this cassette may not be pristine, but the energy is off the charts. Thanks to Tim and Hammer for translation and context.

Link to cassette rip in comments.

Fatima Tihihit | CD 503

Reupped by reader request here.

Found in a little CD/cassette shop in Marrakesh a block or two south of Place Jemaa el Fna. The CD itself started to make horrible noises several months ago, rendering it useless. Thank to Tim at the mind-bendingly awesome music blog Moroccan Tape Stash, I was able to get the files I'd first posted back in April of 2011 of this terrific album, so now you can have them if you hadn't DLed it the first time around.

Oulad El-Bouazzaoui | Milouda

Reupped by reader request, here.

[Originally posted on April 20, 2012.] Another of the many CDs I picked up while in Marrakech a few years ago. I think of this band as the Fezmatics, sort of like the Klezmatics--though, yes, I'm aware that that's the name of the production company or CD series and not the band. (And thanks to Hammer and Tim Abdellah for providing band and album name after this was originally posted -- for track list, see comments.)

I love the matching djellabas; it gives them a kind of early Beatles / Garage look that is oddly fitting with their music. (They are, after all, rawqin' Moroccans.)

Rais Omar Wahrouche | CD 5108

Reupped by special request on Feb 22, 2015, here.

[Originally posted on April 5, 2012.] I found this utterly fantastic CD in a little CD/cassette shop in Marrakesh a block or two south of Place Jemaa el Fna (where I also found this). 

I know nothing about the guy and there looks to be nothing in English about him on the Web anywhere. 

Perhaps Tim at Moroccan Tape Stash can fill us in the next time he stops in at the Bodega?

[Update: See comments for Hammer's track list and elucidation of the artist.]

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.

Berber Music from Agadir

Put your ears to some

Freshly reupped by reader request here

[Originally posted on December 1, 2013.] What be up with this cover? Why do the Fullcolor Women hover so closely to Mr. Sepia? Why is Leftwardmost Woman crouching in a hole? Why are there no artist, album or song names anywhere? Are these simply nameless beings, floating in and out of sepia-tinted sinkholes, singing supersaturated song after song such that each be indistinguishable from the rest?

You should download it and see, my friend. I think you best.