GLITTERBEAT - Forced Exposure

$15.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/22/2019

On the front cover of Saharawi singer-songwriter and activist Aziza Brahim's new album, Sahari, a young girl poses in ballet shoes and a glistening white tutu. It's a common childhood scene, but it's tipped upside down. She's an exile, living nowhere near her homeland, and behind her stand the tents and buildings of a refugee camp. There's a desert on the ground and a burning sky above. Yet even in this bleakness, she has optimism. She believes in a better future. The music Aziza Brahim makes reflects both the sorrow and the hope of these people. She grew up in one of those camps in the Algerian desert, along with thousands of other Saharawi who were removed from their homes in the Western Sahara. Her grandmother was a famous Saharawi poet, her mother well-known as a vocalist, and they passed their strength and fearlessness to her. Now, as one of North African most lauded singers, Brahim uses her position to make the plight of her people known -- and of the refugees across the world who have no choice but to exist in the camps. Sahari is for them as much as it's for her own family. The political remains intensely personal for Brahim. She lives in exile, in Spain, and the music for Sahari -- her third album for Glitterbeat -- was written there. And while her songs remain grounded in her homeland, her gaze is increasingly global. To achieve that, Brahim worked with the acclaimed Spanish artist Amparo Sánchez of the band Amparanoia on the album's pre-production, and the collaboration has made a transformative impact on the music. The focus is broader, with programming and keyboards a vital part of the new sound. The different approach extends to the very root of Brahim's music, the tabal drum that's been the heart of Saharawi music for centuries. The process was made smoother by having a sympathetic band who've been with her for years. All the members played a part in framing the new material. When Brahim began as a composer, her work reflected her own reality, growing up in the far, rocky desert known as the hamada. These days she's become a voice for refugees across the globe, and what she sees every day on the news has inevitably affected her writing. Perhaps Aziza's empowered, healing music, can help refuel our sense of justice and compassion.

$23.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/22/2019

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. On the front cover of Saharawi singer-songwriter and activist Aziza Brahim's new album, Sahari, a young girl poses in ballet shoes and a glistening white tutu. It's a common childhood scene, but it's tipped upside down. She's an exile, living nowhere near her homeland, and behind her stand the tents and buildings of a refugee camp. There's a desert on the ground and a burning sky above. Yet even in this bleakness, she has optimism. She believes in a better future. The music Aziza Brahim makes reflects both the sorrow and the hope of these people. She grew up in one of those camps in the Algerian desert, along with thousands of other Saharawi who were removed from their homes in the Western Sahara. Her grandmother was a famous Saharawi poet, her mother well-known as a vocalist, and they passed their strength and fearlessness to her. Now, as one of North African most lauded singers, Brahim uses her position to make the plight of her people known -- and of the refugees across the world who have no choice but to exist in the camps. Sahari is for them as much as it's for her own family. The political remains intensely personal for Brahim. She lives in exile, in Spain, and the music for Sahari -- her third album for Glitterbeat -- was written there. And while her songs remain grounded in her homeland, her gaze is increasingly global. To achieve that, Brahim worked with the acclaimed Spanish artist Amparo Sánchez of the band Amparanoia on the album's pre-production, and the collaboration has made a transformative impact on the music. The focus is broader, with programming and keyboards a vital part of the new sound. The different approach extends to the very root of Brahim's music, the tabal drum that's been the heart of Saharawi music for centuries. The process was made smoother by having a sympathetic band who've been with her for years. All the members played a part in framing the new material. When Brahim began as a composer, her work reflected her own reality, growing up in the far, rocky desert known as the hamada. These days she's become a voice for refugees across the globe, and what she sees every day on the news has inevitably affected her writing. Perhaps Aziza's empowered, healing music, can help refuel our sense of justice and compassion.

$34.50$29.33 IN STOCK

Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. A dark, thundering Kinshasa meets Paris soundworld. Ecstatic vocals, broken beats, subterranean bass and full-throttle energy. This four-piece group of sonic groundbreakers have delivered a scintillating debut album. Bantou Mentale was born in Chateau Rouge and born out of Matongé. Drummer and song-writer Cubain Kabeya -- originally from the DRC, now resident in Paris -- has been in or around every big thrill to come out of Kinshasa over the past decade: Staff Benda Bilili, Konono No.1, Jupiter & Okwess, Mbongwana Star. Guitarist Chicco Katembo was part of the Staff Benda Bilili story in the early days, before moving to Paris to live with his French mother. Singer Apocalypse is an ace face on the Parisian Congo scene, an alumnus of the orchestra of Koffi Olomide, emperor of contemporary Congolese soukous. Liam Farrell, aka Doctor L, born Irish, raised Parisian, is a musician, composer, and producer with an impressive score sheet that includes Assassin, FFF, Psycho on Da Bus, Tony Allen, Mbongwana Star, Babani Koné, Nneka, Les Amazones d'Afrique. The Bantou Mentale sound is neither traditional, nor slave to the all-encompassing tropes of Congolese rumba, nor slick and arty and self-consciously stylish. They're bringing something modern, raw, open to the world. Liam and Cubain have been distilling experimental mashes of electro African beats on-and-off for years, under names like Black Cowboys or Negro-P. The sound is a gleeful borderless up-cycling of all the urban styles that Paris, London, New York, Kinshasa have been doling out to the world these past two decades, combined into something new and purposeful. There are songs like "Zanzibar" and "Sango" that lament the clandestino stuck in the desert, penniless, screwed. And songs like "Chateau Rouge" that celebrate the wild uncertainty, the liberation, the fellowship of the migrant. "Boko Haram" bemoans the intellectual subservience and social servitude of many Africans, with music that's underpinned by the pulse of the forest and propelled by roughneck riffs and phasing guitars. "Papa Jo" pays homage to an old departed friend from Kinshasa who threw the best parties in his ramshackle house. The delicious grime of "Suabala" hides a story of love, with levels of passion and guitars frolicking in the red. "Boloko" is slower, more ethereal, with its subversion of the sound of those angelic choirs of "saved" little African kids that were the pride of the missionaries. "Syria" tells you that there's no future in petrol wars, with music that's strangled, painful, urgent, tragic, with plenty of glorious distortion.

$15.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/25/2019

A dark, thundering Kinshasa meets Paris soundworld. Ecstatic vocals, broken beats, subterranean bass and full-throttle energy. This four-piece group of sonic groundbreakers have delivered a scintillating debut album. Bantou Mentale was born in Chateau Rouge and born out of Matongé. Drummer and song-writer Cubain Kabeya -- originally from the DRC, now resident in Paris -- has been in or around every big thrill to come out of Kinshasa over the past decade: Staff Benda Bilili, Konono No.1, Jupiter & Okwess, Mbongwana Star. Guitarist Chicco Katembo was part of the Staff Benda Bilili story in the early days, before moving to Paris to live with his French mother. Singer Apocalypse is an ace face on the Parisian Congo scene, an alumnus of the orchestra of Koffi Olomide, emperor of contemporary Congolese soukous. Liam Farrell, aka Doctor L, born Irish, raised Parisian, is a musician, composer, and producer with an impressive score sheet that includes Assassin, FFF, Psycho on Da Bus, Tony Allen, Mbongwana Star, Babani Koné, Nneka, Les Amazones d'Afrique. The Bantou Mentale sound is neither traditional, nor slave to the all-encompassing tropes of Congolese rumba, nor slick and arty and self-consciously stylish. They're bringing something modern, raw, open to the world. Liam and Cubain have been distilling experimental mashes of electro African beats on-and-off for years, under names like Black Cowboys or Negro-P. The sound is a gleeful borderless up-cycling of all the urban styles that Paris, London, New York, Kinshasa have been doling out to the world these past two decades, combined into something new and purposeful. There are songs like "Zanzibar" and "Sango" that lament the clandestino stuck in the desert, penniless, screwed. And songs like "Chateau Rouge" that celebrate the wild uncertainty, the liberation, the fellowship of the migrant. "Boko Haram" bemoans the intellectual subservience and social servitude of many Africans, with music that's underpinned by the pulse of the forest and propelled by roughneck riffs and phasing guitars. "Papa Jo" pays homage to an old departed friend from Kinshasa who threw the best parties in his ramshackle house. The delicious grime of "Suabala" hides a story of love, with levels of passion and guitars frolicking in the red. "Boloko" is slower, more ethereal, with its subversion of the sound of those angelic choirs of "saved" little African kids that were the pride of the missionaries. "Syria" tells you that there's no future in petrol wars, with music that's strangled, painful, urgent, tragic, with plenty of glorious distortion.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

BaBa ZuLa, the legendary ensemble from Istanbul, have brilliantly established themselves over the past two decades as the missing link between Turkish psych, krautrock, and dub-wise stylings. Derin Derin is the thrilling follow-up to their acclaimed retrospective XX (GB 042CD/LP, 2017), and finds the band more experimental and expansive than ever. On Derin Derin, BaBa ZuLa's first studio album since 2014, they create their art with beautiful eloquence and stinging passion. It takes wing and soars high; the instrumental portion of the disc grew out of music BaBa ZuLa were asked to record for a documentary about falcons. It grew, little by little, drawing together the elements that have been the heart of the band's sound throughout its existence: the rich wildness of Turkish psychedelia and the blinding, pure emotion that runs through traditional Anatolian music, tempered with the constant musical questing of the band's inspiration, krautrock pioneers Can, and the electro-dub experiments BaBa ZuLa has undertaken with producer Mad Professor. It's an utterly 21st century sound, where the voices are sometimes submerged, sometimes screaming loud to breaking through the noise. "U Are the Swing" is a track that carries particularly profound echoes of Can's late drummer, Jaki Liebezeit. The drum part was played by Ertel's children on a kit Liebezeit himself had modified, and Liebezeit sat in with BaBa ZuLa on many occasions. Those rhythms form the bedrock of BaBa ZuLa's sound, just as they were the foundation of the early Turkish psychedelia of the 1960s and '70s that has been a lifelong influence on Ertel. Psychedelia seeped into his soul and helped to frame his vision for BaBa ZuLa when he formed the band in 1996. And throughout their existence, they've kept their unique mix of electric saz and electric oud to give that double fretboard attack that's so markedly not Western. The psychedelic sound of BaBa ZuLa also feeds quite organically into dub. On "Eagle Got Wolf", for instance, phrases and riffs echo and hang suspended in the air as the bass dives and swoops, while plucked notes appear, only to flicker away again. Derin Derin melds the past into the present and sends it flying into the future. Derin Derin is fearless music. It's the truth. And there is hope.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. BaBa ZuLa, the legendary ensemble from Istanbul, have brilliantly established themselves over the past two decades as the missing link between Turkish psych, krautrock, and dub-wise stylings. Derin Derin is the thrilling follow-up to their acclaimed retrospective XX (GB 042CD/LP, 2017), and finds the band more experimental and expansive than ever. On Derin Derin, BaBa ZuLa's first studio album since 2014, they create their art with beautiful eloquence and stinging passion. It takes wing and soars high; the instrumental portion of the disc grew out of music BaBa ZuLa were asked to record for a documentary about falcons. It grew, little by little, drawing together the elements that have been the heart of the band's sound throughout its existence: the rich wildness of Turkish psychedelia and the blinding, pure emotion that runs through traditional Anatolian music, tempered with the constant musical questing of the band's inspiration, krautrock pioneers Can, and the electro-dub experiments BaBa ZuLa has undertaken with producer Mad Professor. It's an utterly 21st century sound, where the voices are sometimes submerged, sometimes screaming loud to breaking through the noise. "U Are the Swing" is a track that carries particularly profound echoes of Can's late drummer, Jaki Liebezeit. The drum part was played by Ertel's children on a kit Liebezeit himself had modified, and Liebezeit sat in with BaBa ZuLa on many occasions. Those rhythms form the bedrock of BaBa ZuLa's sound, just as they were the foundation of the early Turkish psychedelia of the 1960s and '70s that has been a lifelong influence on Ertel. Psychedelia seeped into his soul and helped to frame his vision for BaBa ZuLa when he formed the band in 1996. And throughout their existence, they've kept their unique mix of electric saz and electric oud to give that double fretboard attack that's so markedly not Western. The psychedelic sound of BaBa ZuLa also feeds quite organically into dub. On "Eagle Got Wolf", for instance, phrases and riffs echo and hang suspended in the air as the bass dives and swoops, while plucked notes appear, only to flicker away again. Derin Derin melds the past into the present and sends it flying into the future. Derin Derin is fearless music. It's the truth. And there is hope.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

A celebrated instrumental supergroup featuring three of Bogotá's most visionary musicians: Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers, Chúpame el dedo), Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica), and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo, Chúpame el dedo). Fusing the experimental possibilities of South American rhythms and sonics (cumbia, champeta, tropicalia, salsa, and more) with avant psych rock, dub minimalism, and spiked jazz, Los Pirañas are retro-futurism at its finest. The three members of Los Pirañas can all remember when they were in high school together in Bogotá, Colombia and just beginning to play music. Twenty-five years on and they've become internationally well-known musicians, spread across different bands, traversing multiple continents. Historia Natural, their third album, recaptures the spirit that moved them as teenagers. Although they'd played music together when young, Los Pirañas only came into being as a band in 2009. It gave them the chance to explore the complex vitality of Colombian rhythms mixed with Alvarez's unique blend of computer and guitar. Their debut release as Los Pirañas showcased the joys of "the trio format that was new to us," while the band's second release La Diversión Que Hacía Falta En Mi País (STAUB 145LP, 2017) came after a few years of touring. For their third outing they went searching for a nuanced naïveté and they found it, with Ojeda's adroit drumming and the muscular bass work of Mario Galeano of Frente Cumbiero fame, providing a solid anchor for the music. Together, the pair create a mighty tropical noise that frees up Alvarez for his guitar experiments. He's been working with computers and music for two decades, feeding his guitar through a laptop. Alvarez's guitar is a shapeshifter, constantly mutating sound and texture. It rarely sounds straight up, but there's never a doubt that someone is plucking the strings and bending the notes. Alvarez darts around and through the lines created by Ojeda and Galeano, leading or snapping at their heels. This is a band bristling with ideas, where the unspoken communication is so acute that all three of them can swerve together or turn on a dime. Their particular culture revolves very much around Colombia's capital, Bogotá, where they live and where they've always made music. A swirling, electric universe of music, created right in their own neighborhood. That's the real Historia Natural of Los Pirañas.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. A celebrated instrumental supergroup featuring three of Bogotá's most visionary musicians: Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers, Chúpame el dedo), Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica), and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo, Chúpame el dedo). Fusing the experimental possibilities of South American rhythms and sonics (cumbia, champeta, tropicalia, salsa, and more) with avant psych rock, dub minimalism, and spiked jazz, Los Pirañas are retro-futurism at its finest. The three members of Los Pirañas can all remember when they were in high school together in Bogotá, Colombia and just beginning to play music. Twenty-five years on and they've become internationally well-known musicians, spread across different bands, traversing multiple continents. Historia Natural, their third album, recaptures the spirit that moved them as teenagers. Although they'd played music together when young, Los Pirañas only came into being as a band in 2009. It gave them the chance to explore the complex vitality of Colombian rhythms mixed with Alvarez's unique blend of computer and guitar. Their debut release as Los Pirañas showcased the joys of "the trio format that was new to us," while the band's second release La Diversión Que Hacía Falta En Mi País (STAUB 145LP, 2017) came after a few years of touring. For their third outing they went searching for a nuanced naïveté and they found it, with Ojeda's adroit drumming and the muscular bass work of Mario Galeano of Frente Cumbiero fame, providing a solid anchor for the music. Together, the pair create a mighty tropical noise that frees up Alvarez for his guitar experiments. He's been working with computers and music for two decades, feeding his guitar through a laptop. Alvarez's guitar is a shapeshifter, constantly mutating sound and texture. It rarely sounds straight up, but there's never a doubt that someone is plucking the strings and bending the notes. Alvarez darts around and through the lines created by Ojeda and Galeano, leading or snapping at their heels. This is a band bristling with ideas, where the unspoken communication is so acute that all three of them can swerve together or turn on a dime. Their particular culture revolves very much around Colombia's capital, Bogotá, where they live and where they've always made music. A swirling, electric universe of music, created right in their own neighborhood. That's the real Historia Natural of Los Pirañas.

$14.00$11.90 IN STOCK

BaBa ZuLa, legendary ensemble from Istanbul, present a follow-up to their career-spanning retrospective, XX (GB 042CD/LP). The three-track EP features exploratory versions of songs from their upcoming Glitterbeat album Derin Derin. "Kızıl Gözlüm (My Scarlet Eyed)" is psychedelic urban folk rock where the Turkish Huseini maqam is synched with synth drums. Two radical re-interpretations of "Kervan Yolda" are on the B side. Schneider TM (aka Dirk Dresselhaus) treats this road song in his own dark but playful manner, while resident engineer of BaBa ZuLa, Arastaman, pulls you deep into the wide-open space between the beats and the notes.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Fusing the rhythms and invocations of the ancient Saharan Banga ritual with an electrical storm of contemporary sonics, Ifriqiyya Electrique's second album both grips and awakens. In Tunisian, Banga means "huge volume" and one cannot think of a more apt description of Laylet El Booree than that: Maximalist and relentless; Blood, sweat, and trance. Several years ago, two of the musicians who make up the five-piece Ifriqiyya Electrique -- Gianna Greco and François R. Cambuzat -- ventured to the Djerid desert of Tunisia to investigate and confront the religious ritual of the Banga, a ritual of legendary intensity indigenous to the region. The musical duo's background is in the underground post-punk scene of continental Europe, as members of Putan Club and as collaborators with the venerable Lydia Lunch. But they are also voracious travelers and seekers of global sonics that are at least partially hidden from the western gaze. In 2017, Ifriqiyya Electrique released their debut album Rûwâhîne (GB 046CD/LP), an album which deftly brought together the hypnotic chants and metallic hand percussion of traditional Banga music with brutalist electronics and sheer rock volume. Three members of the Banga community -- Tarek Sultan, Yahia Chouchen, and Youssef Ghazala -- joined forces with Gianna and Francois not only on this acclaimed album, but also onstage throughout the eighteen months of touring that followed the record's release. It quickly became clear that the Banga had not been pointlessly retooled for western consumption, but rather through the deep commitment of the five Ifriqiyya Electrique musicians -- it had been transformed into something contemporary and unexpected. Ifriqiyya Electrique cryptically call this transformation a "post-industrial ritual" and the actual experience of hearing this music certainly echoes this moniker. The title of the second album Laylet El Booree translates as the "Night Of The Madness". It refers to the last part of the annual gathering of the adorcist ritual from the Banga of Tozeur -- it is the night when the spirits actually take possession of the bodies. With the band now joined by new member Fatma Chebbi (on vocals and tchektchekas hand percussion) one senses that the musical and cultural conversation is even deeper this time around. In fact, it doesn't feel like a speculative conversation at all, but rather something fully formed and undeniable. An emergent ritual in itself.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. Fusing the rhythms and invocations of the ancient Saharan Banga ritual with an electrical storm of contemporary sonics, Ifriqiyya Electrique's second album both grips and awakens. In Tunisian, Banga means "huge volume" and one cannot think of a more apt description of Laylet El Booree than that: Maximalist and relentless; Blood, sweat, and trance. Several years ago, two of the musicians who make up the five-piece Ifriqiyya Electrique -- Gianna Greco and François R. Cambuzat -- ventured to the Djerid desert of Tunisia to investigate and confront the religious ritual of the Banga, a ritual of legendary intensity indigenous to the region. The musical duo's background is in the underground post-punk scene of continental Europe, as members of Putan Club and as collaborators with the venerable Lydia Lunch. But they are also voracious travelers and seekers of global sonics that are at least partially hidden from the western gaze. In 2017, Ifriqiyya Electrique released their debut album Rûwâhîne (GB 046CD/LP), an album which deftly brought together the hypnotic chants and metallic hand percussion of traditional Banga music with brutalist electronics and sheer rock volume. Three members of the Banga community -- Tarek Sultan, Yahia Chouchen, and Youssef Ghazala -- joined forces with Gianna and Francois not only on this acclaimed album, but also onstage throughout the eighteen months of touring that followed the record's release. It quickly became clear that the Banga had not been pointlessly retooled for western consumption, but rather through the deep commitment of the five Ifriqiyya Electrique musicians -- it had been transformed into something contemporary and unexpected. Ifriqiyya Electrique cryptically call this transformation a "post-industrial ritual" and the actual experience of hearing this music certainly echoes this moniker. The title of the second album Laylet El Booree translates as the "Night Of The Madness". It refers to the last part of the annual gathering of the adorcist ritual from the Banga of Tozeur -- it is the night when the spirits actually take possession of the bodies. With the band now joined by new member Fatma Chebbi (on vocals and tchektchekas hand percussion) one senses that the musical and cultural conversation is even deeper this time around. In fact, it doesn't feel like a speculative conversation at all, but rather something fully formed and undeniable. An emergent ritual in itself.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. On the heels of their acclaimed album Tikounen (ZEP 032LP, 2016) -- a recording The Guardian called "a leap forward in the modern Tuareg sound... truly radical" -- Kel Assouf return with an even more transformative collection: Black Tenere. Produced by the band's keyboardist Sofyann Ben Youssef, the mastermind behind the highly touted AMMAR 808, the new album strips things back to a power trio lineup and focuses on the crackling, forward-looking energy of Nigerien front man Anana Ag Haroun's next level Kel Tamashek (Tuareg) rock songs. Kel Assouf's musical journey has flowed seamlessly from the well-spring created by Ishumar desert rock pioneers Tinariwen -- that Haroun first encountered as a young musician in Niger -- towards sonic horizons that include the rock classicism and the club beats and astral ambiance of European electronic music. On Black Tenere, the band pushes these different textures and influences towards a persuasive, raw-edged crescendo. The messages found in Ag Haroun's lyrics are potent, tragic, and inspiring in their defiance. The struggle of the stateless Kel Tamashek (a name they prefer to the colonial moniker "Tuareg") to maintain control of their ancestral lands, their dignity and their nomadic way of life, has only recently entered the fringes of Western consciousness. Infused into the sharp, unswerving social analysis, and the calls for resistance, there is also the shimmer of nostalgia and a poetry of deep longing. To record the energized soundscapes of Black Tenere, the trio (Ag Harouna plus drummer Oliver Penu and keyboardist/producer Sofyann Ben Youssef) setup at Stureparken Studio in Stockholm. Ben Youssef, a fast-rising producer responsible for the previous Kel Assouf album and recent records by Algerian rai provocateur Sofiane Sadi and AMMAR 808. The recordings brilliantly reflect the strong collective heart of the band -- each musician supporting the album's propulsive, hypnotic purposes -- yet on many occasions stepping forward in thrilling ways. "Alyochan" is unimaginable without the motorik pulse of Penu's trance-like drumming. Ben Youssef's Hammond organ creates a gorgeous defining space (and an unresolved tension) throughout the long intro of "Ariyal". While Ag Haroun's guitar is often wrapped in distortion, on "Tamatan" he pulls things back, and with the help of Enoesque treatments, his guitar feels star bound and weightless.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

On the heels of their acclaimed album Tikounen (ZEP 032LP, 2016) -- a recording The Guardian called "a leap forward in the modern Tuareg sound... truly radical" -- Kel Assouf return with an even more transformative collection: Black Tenere. Produced by the band's keyboardist Sofyann Ben Youssef, the mastermind behind the highly touted AMMAR 808, the new album strips things back to a power trio lineup and focuses on the crackling, forward-looking energy of Nigerien front man Anana Ag Haroun's next level Kel Tamashek (Tuareg) rock songs. Kel Assouf's musical journey has flowed seamlessly from the well-spring created by Ishumar desert rock pioneers Tinariwen -- that Haroun first encountered as a young musician in Niger -- towards sonic horizons that include the rock classicism and the club beats and astral ambiance of European electronic music. On Black Tenere, the band pushes these different textures and influences towards a persuasive, raw-edged crescendo. The messages found in Ag Haroun's lyrics are potent, tragic, and inspiring in their defiance. The struggle of the stateless Kel Tamashek (a name they prefer to the colonial moniker "Tuareg") to maintain control of their ancestral lands, their dignity and their nomadic way of life, has only recently entered the fringes of Western consciousness. Infused into the sharp, unswerving social analysis, and the calls for resistance, there is also the shimmer of nostalgia and a poetry of deep longing. To record the energized soundscapes of Black Tenere, the trio (Ag Harouna plus drummer Oliver Penu and keyboardist/producer Sofyann Ben Youssef) setup at Stureparken Studio in Stockholm. Ben Youssef, a fast-rising producer responsible for the previous Kel Assouf album and recent records by Algerian rai provocateur Sofiane Sadi and AMMAR 808. The recordings brilliantly reflect the strong collective heart of the band -- each musician supporting the album's propulsive, hypnotic purposes -- yet on many occasions stepping forward in thrilling ways. "Alyochan" is unimaginable without the motorik pulse of Penu's trance-like drumming. Ben Youssef's Hammond organ creates a gorgeous defining space (and an unresolved tension) throughout the long intro of "Ariyal". While Ag Haroun's guitar is often wrapped in distortion, on "Tamatan" he pulls things back, and with the help of Enoesque treatments, his guitar feels star bound and weightless.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

Ustad Saami's God Is Not A Terrorist is hypnotic, unvarnished recordings by one of Pakistan's most revered and iconic classical singers. The roots of Saami's music go back to the 13th century, but its message is contemporary and universal: "to sing is to listen." Produced by Grammy Award winner Ian Brennan, God Is Not A Terrorist is volume five of Glitterbeat's acclaimed Hidden Musics series. "75-year-old Ustad Saami risks his life daily in Pakistan to keep alive his microtonal, pre-Islamic, multilingual (Farsi, Sanskrit, Hindi, the ancient language of Vedic, gibberish, Arabic, and Urdu) music. Handed down by his ancestors for over a thousand years, he is the only practitioner of Surti left in the world; when he passes, this music will die with him. Extremists resent his work as they do anything else pre-dating Muhammad. In the land where Osama Bin last hid, Master Ustad Naseeruddin Saami has spent his entire life mastering the nuances of every given note. It has been said that India always had a region where all of the greatest singers came from; that place is Pakistan. "To sing is to listen." These are the words of the master. The translation of his last name, Saami, even means "to hear." For him, everything centers on one note. From that, all else grows and music is seen as a sixth sense for people to better communicate with each other. With great precision, Saami utilizes 49 notes versus the West's mere seven. The scale was founded by a mix-raced royal whose lifelong endeavor was to make peace with duality through art. This predecessor of qawwali music is called khayál, the Arabic word for "imagination"; in it the melody carries the meaning. The lyrics are almost incidental during these call-and-responses. It is the uneven pitches that the master values as being the most searching; those with even numbers are too stable. The master shapes the notes with his hands as he sings like conducting a Theremin. Most masters now hide their knowledge, possessively passing their skills down through family only. Subsequently, traditions have died and withered. Master Saami's mission is to share his knowledge with the world, so that the music may live on freely." --Ian Brennan. LP version; 180 gram vinyl, includes download.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Ustad Saami's God Is Not A Terrorist is hypnotic, unvarnished recordings by one of Pakistan's most revered and iconic classical singers. The roots of Saami's music go back to the 13th century, but its message is contemporary and universal: "to sing is to listen." Produced by Grammy Award winner Ian Brennan, God Is Not A Terrorist is volume five of Glitterbeat's acclaimed Hidden Musics series. "75-year-old Ustad Saami risks his life daily in Pakistan to keep alive his microtonal, pre-Islamic, multilingual (Farsi, Sanskrit, Hindi, the ancient language of Vedic, gibberish, Arabic, and Urdu) music. Handed down by his ancestors for over a thousand years, he is the only practitioner of Surti left in the world; when he passes, this music will die with him. Extremists resent his work as they do anything else pre-dating Muhammad. In the land where Osama Bin last hid, Master Ustad Naseeruddin Saami has spent his entire life mastering the nuances of every given note. It has been said that India always had a region where all of the greatest singers came from; that place is Pakistan. "To sing is to listen." These are the words of the master. The translation of his last name, Saami, even means "to hear." For him, everything centers on one note. From that, all else grows and music is seen as a sixth sense for people to better communicate with each other. With great precision, Saami utilizes 49 notes versus the West's mere seven. The scale was founded by a mix-raced royal whose lifelong endeavor was to make peace with duality through art. This predecessor of qawwali music is called khayál, the Arabic word for "imagination"; in it the melody carries the meaning. The lyrics are almost incidental during these call-and-responses. It is the uneven pitches that the master values as being the most searching; those with even numbers are too stable. The master shapes the notes with his hands as he sings like conducting a Theremin. Most masters now hide their knowledge, possessively passing their skills down through family only. Subsequently, traditions have died and withered. Master Saami's mission is to share his knowledge with the world, so that the music may live on freely." --Ian Brennan. LP version on 180 gram vinyl, includes download.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

The London-based Afro-dub ensemble Fofoulah have followed-up their debut album Fofoulah (GB 017 CD/LP, 2014) with a more shape-shifting and adventurous recording. Slippery sabar beats, dystopian electronics, and echoing, shamanic chants ratchet up both the dub quotient and the dramatic tension. Creating a sound-world that is both earthy and urban, futurist and rooted - their new album Daega Rek (The Truth) is brought into focus by the rhythms and vocals of Gambian sabar drummer Kaw Secka and the vivid production of keyboardist/saxophonist Tom Challenger. After the release of Fofoulah, the band played extensively in the U.K. and Europe where every concert would see Secka rise to the microphone with his tama (a talking drum) and rap over the last song, cueing rhythmic patterns for the group to play in unison. It was decided to take this exploratory part of the shows forward into the next realm. The concept that emerged for the Daega Rek involved combining recordings of drums and percussion with improvisatory vocalizations and a production aesthetic that pushed the band's collective sound in a much more electronic and dub-based direction. The resultant tracks were shaped by Challenger in his studio, fusing the new rhythm sessions with a variety of manipulated, previous recordings of the band, while also adding an array of synthesizers. Secka then came in to lay down vocals and it was these contributions that went on to define the final songs. Every song has a different meaning, or message, all of them sung in Wolof, a language central to coastal West African countries such as The Gambia and Senegal. Secka's lyrics explore a myriad of topics -- "Njite" for example, focuses on the importance of leadership, and all that it entails; "Seye" (Marriage) explores the nature of human connection; and the title track sets its lens on truth and the riddles of reality. The rhythmic propulsion of the initial recordings made by drummer Dave Smith and Secka at Real World, melds with a backdrop of shifting sonic colors; Johnny Brierley's melodic bass lines underpin the patterns of Phil Stevenson's guitar which intersect with Challenger's keyboards and Secka's incantations. The emphasis on sonic structure and the identity of the material showcases its influences - traditional sabar drumming meeting glitchy electronics and dub textures blending with elements of footwork and drum and bass. Fofoulah remind us that sonic and human experiences combine, resonate and land where they will.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. The London-based Afro-dub ensemble Fofoulah have followed-up their debut album Fofoulah (GB 017 CD/LP, 2014) with a more shape-shifting and adventurous recording. Slippery sabar beats, dystopian electronics, and echoing, shamanic chants ratchet up both the dub quotient and the dramatic tension. Creating a sound-world that is both earthy and urban, futurist and rooted - their new album Daega Rek (The Truth) is brought into focus by the rhythms and vocals of Gambian sabar drummer Kaw Secka and the vivid production of keyboardist/saxophonist Tom Challenger. After the release of Fofoulah, the band played extensively in the U.K. and Europe where every concert would see Secka rise to the microphone with his tama (a talking drum) and rap over the last song, cueing rhythmic patterns for the group to play in unison. It was decided to take this exploratory part of the shows forward into the next realm. The concept that emerged for the Daega Rek involved combining recordings of drums and percussion with improvisatory vocalizations and a production aesthetic that pushed the band's collective sound in a much more electronic and dub-based direction. The resultant tracks were shaped by Challenger in his studio, fusing the new rhythm sessions with a variety of manipulated, previous recordings of the band, while also adding an array of synthesizers. Secka then came in to lay down vocals and it was these contributions that went on to define the final songs. Every song has a different meaning, or message, all of them sung in Wolof, a language central to coastal West African countries such as The Gambia and Senegal. Secka's lyrics explore a myriad of topics -- "Njite" for example, focuses on the importance of leadership, and all that it entails; "Seye" (Marriage) explores the nature of human connection; and the title track sets its lens on truth and the riddles of reality. The rhythmic propulsion of the initial recordings made by drummer Dave Smith and Secka at Real World, melds with a backdrop of shifting sonic colors; Johnny Brierley's melodic bass lines underpin the patterns of Phil Stevenson's guitar which intersect with Challenger's keyboards and Secka's incantations. The emphasis on sonic structure and the identity of the material showcases its influences - traditional sabar drumming meeting glitchy electronics and dub textures blending with elements of footwork and drum and bass. Fofoulah remind us that sonic and human experiences combine, resonate and land where they will.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

With the release of her first international album Hologram Ĭmparatorluğu (GB 040CD/LP, 2016), Gaye Su Akyol established herself as one of Turkey's most compelling young voices and most exhilarating sonic explorers. Her work as a singer-songwriter, producer, and audio/visual conceptualist simultaneously navigates the storied past, the hyperconnected present and the unscripted future. Growing up in cosmopolitan Istanbul listening to Anatolian music icon Selda Bağcan and Kurt Cobain in equal measure, Akyol skipped right over the tired Oriental/Occidental paradigmatic clichés. Following the widespread critical acclaim for Hologram Ĭmparatorluğu, Gaye and her sublime band spent 18 months traveling up and down Turkey, Europe, and the Middle and Far East, sharing with audiences a vibrant mix of raki-laced traditional balladry, futurist surf, and post-punk opposition. Istikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, produced by her and guitarist Ali Güçlü Şimşek, is arguably more immediate and visceral than the first two, reflecting her and the band's growing reputation as a powerful live act. Istikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, which translates as "Consistent Fantasy is Reality", is a deeply poetic album; an album of personalized politics, an album that digs into the heart our contentious, inexplicable contemporary experience. Gaye Su Akyol: "'Consistent Fantasy is Reality' is the third album in my discography . . . Like my second album, it is published by Dunganga Records (our own record company) in Turkey and by Glitterbeat worldwide. In terms of its philosophy, lyrics, music and motto, this album is the dream of pure freedom, of showing the courage to be yourself, of looking at the culture I was born into without alienation, a 'dreaming practice' propounded into a country and world that is increasingly turning inward and becoming a conservatized prison. Musically the album combines influences from the Anatolian pop/Anatolian rock genre that emerged in Turkey during the '60s and the '70s with Turkish classical music scales and vocal aesthetics, and various subgenres of rock (psychedelic, post-punk, surf), bringing together strong ballads, Turkish folk tunes, the conventional guitar-bassdrums trio with percussions, joined by violin, oud, cumbush, and -- as new additions that the previous albums did not have -- baglama (Turkish native instrument), electronic beats, and wind instruments like saxophone and trumpet, all together making up a very rich instrumental palette." LP version comes on 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. Personnel: Gaye Su Akyol - vocals, percussions, electronics; Ali Güçlü Şimşek - electric and acoustic guitar, back vocal; Görkem Karabudak - bass and acoustic guitar, keyboard, electronics, back vocal; Ediz Hafızoğlu - drums; İlhan Erşahin - saxophone; Barlas Tan Özemek - classical guitar (şahmeran); Ahmet Ayzit - violin, oud, electro saz, cumbush; Ismail Darıcı - percussions; Oğuz Can Bilgin - trumpet.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. With the release of her first international album Hologram Ĭmparatorluğu (GB 040CD/LP, 2016), Gaye Su Akyol established herself as one of Turkey's most compelling young voices and most exhilarating sonic explorers. Her work as a singer-songwriter, producer, and audio/visual conceptualist simultaneously navigates the storied past, the hyperconnected present and the unscripted future. Growing up in cosmopolitan Istanbul listening to Anatolian music icon Selda Bağcan and Kurt Cobain in equal measure, Akyol skipped right over the tired Oriental/Occidental paradigmatic clichés. Following the widespread critical acclaim for Hologram Ĭmparatorluğu, Gaye and her sublime band spent 18 months traveling up and down Turkey, Europe, and the Middle and Far East, sharing with audiences a vibrant mix of raki-laced traditional balladry, futurist surf, and post-punk opposition. Istikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, produced by her and guitarist Ali Güçlü Şimşek, is arguably more immediate and visceral than the first two, reflecting her and the band's growing reputation as a powerful live act. Istikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, which translates as "Consistent Fantasy is Reality", is a deeply poetic album; an album of personalized politics, an album that digs into the heart our contentious, inexplicable contemporary experience. Gaye Su Akyol: "'Consistent Fantasy is Reality' is the third album in my discography . . . Like my second album, it is published by Dunganga Records (our own record company) in Turkey and by Glitterbeat worldwide. In terms of its philosophy, lyrics, music and motto, this album is the dream of pure freedom, of showing the courage to be yourself, of looking at the culture I was born into without alienation, a 'dreaming practice' propounded into a country and world that is increasingly turning inward and becoming a conservatized prison. Musically the album combines influences from the Anatolian pop/Anatolian rock genre that emerged in Turkey during the '60s and the '70s with Turkish classical music scales and vocal aesthetics, and various subgenres of rock (psychedelic, post-punk, surf), bringing together strong ballads, Turkish folk tunes, the conventional guitar-bassdrums trio with percussions, joined by violin, oud, cumbush, and -- as new additions that the previous albums did not have -- baglama (Turkish native instrument), electronic beats, and wind instruments like saxophone and trumpet, all together making up a very rich instrumental palette." LP version comes on 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. Personnel: Gaye Su Akyol - vocals, percussions, electronics; Ali Güçlü Şimşek - electric and acoustic guitar, back vocal; Görkem Karabudak - bass and acoustic guitar, keyboard, electronics, back vocal; Ediz Hafızoğlu - drums; İlhan Erşahin - saxophone; Barlas Tan Özemek - classical guitar (şahmeran); Ahmet Ayzit - violin, oud, electro saz, cumbush; Ismail Darıcı - percussions; Oğuz Can Bilgin - trumpet.

$34.50$29.33 IN STOCK

Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. São Paulo's acclaimed ten-piece instrumental collective return for their fourth album, Quebra Cabeça. Urban Afro-Brazilian grooves, empowered horn-driven melodicism, and massive dancefloor inspiration. One of South America's most exhilarating musical propositions. Almost four centuries after the first slave ships loaded their cargoes and set sail, the connection between Brazil and West Africa remains firm and deep. Africa is everywhere in Brazil, and it pulses through the music on Quebra Cabeça ("Puzzle"), Bixiga 70's second studio album for Glitterbeat, where two continents dance together across the black Atlantic. Bixiga 70 have created hybrid in their music --with each member pulling from candomblé (the African-Caribbean religion), jazz, reggae, dub -- and each influence takes on a slightly different form. On Quebra Cabeça, that sound becomes more complex. That's apparent in the shifts and turns of a piece like "Pedra De Raio" or "Levante", where the melody shifts and swerves, one section flowing naturally into the next, adding layer upon layer to create something astonishing and utterly satisfying in its power. In large part, this change has come from the band's relentless touring over the last few years. "We've been exposed to so much," flutist Cuca Ferreira notes. "So many of the people we've played with have had an impact on us, like Pat Thomas, the Ghanaian highlife singer or [Nigerian saxophonist] Orlando Julius. And then we toured and recorded with João Donato . . . We've learned from them all, they've made us think about what we can do with our music." One result is the new, shining lyricism of the melodies, with the horns pushed even more to the fore, parading around with a singer's swagger. Quebra Cabeça is a very memorable set of hummable earworms, from the title cut that opens up the album and continuing, sinewy and cool and relentless, all the way to the final note of "Portal". Throughout though, the heartbeat of everything remains utterly African, refracted through the prism of the band's home in the Bixiga neighborhood of São Paulo. Bixiga 70 has always been a reflection of the streets where they live. The band played their first show in October 2010 and released their debut album a year later. Eight years on they are still the same ten-piece collective, honing and shaping the music, evolving towards the changes found on Quebra Cabeça.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

São Paulo's acclaimed ten-piece instrumental collective return for their fourth album, Quebra Cabeça. Urban Afro-Brazilian grooves, empowered horn-driven melodicism, and massive dancefloor inspiration. One of South America's most exhilarating musical propositions. Almost four centuries after the first slave ships loaded their cargoes and set sail, the connection between Brazil and West Africa remains firm and deep. Africa is everywhere in Brazil, and it pulses through the music on Quebra Cabeça ("Puzzle"), Bixiga 70's second studio album for Glitterbeat, where two continents dance together across the black Atlantic. Bixiga 70 have created hybrid in their music --with each member pulling from candomblé (the African-Caribbean religion), jazz, reggae, dub -- and each influence takes on a slightly different form. On Quebra Cabeça, that sound becomes more complex. That's apparent in the shifts and turns of a piece like "Pedra De Raio" or "Levante", where the melody shifts and swerves, one section flowing naturally into the next, adding layer upon layer to create something astonishing and utterly satisfying in its power. In large part, this change has come from the band's relentless touring over the last few years. "We've been exposed to so much," flutist Cuca Ferreira notes. "So many of the people we've played with have had an impact on us, like Pat Thomas, the Ghanaian highlife singer or [Nigerian saxophonist] Orlando Julius. And then we toured and recorded with João Donato . . . We've learned from them all, they've made us think about what we can do with our music." One result is the new, shining lyricism of the melodies, with the horns pushed even more to the fore, parading around with a singer's swagger. Quebra Cabeça is a very memorable set of hummable earworms, from the title cut that opens up the album and continuing, sinewy and cool and relentless, all the way to the final note of "Portal". Throughout though, the heartbeat of everything remains utterly African, refracted through the prism of the band's home in the Bixiga neighborhood of São Paulo. Bixiga 70 has always been a reflection of the streets where they live. The band played their first show in October 2010 and released their debut album a year later. Eight years on they are still the same ten-piece collective, honing and shaping the music, evolving towards the changes found on Quebra Cabeça.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

A collection of early singles by the renowned Zimbabwean Mbira master and a true African music icon, Stella Chiweshe. The songs were mostly recorded in the 1970s, during the buildup to the Chimurenga revolution, and were only ever released in Stella's home country. Stella's album Kasahwa: Early Singles offers a fascinating introduction to the world of Mbira, with the term not only referring to the instrument, but also to a musical genre -- and on a much wider level, to an entire culture and deeply spiritual lifestyle at the core of the young Zimbabwean nation. Mbira is an ancient mystical music which has been played for over a thousand years by the Shona people. Mbira pervades all aspects of Shona culture, both sacred and secular. Its most important function is as a "telephone to the spirits of people, water, trees, stones and birds," used to contact both deceased ancestors and tribal guardians, at all-night ceremonies. Kasahwa is a collection of impossible-to-find early seven inches, eight cuts spanning the period from 1974 to 1983 and representing Mbira in its purest form. None of these songs has been released outside of Africa so far. In her humble beginnings, little pointed to the fact that young Stella at sixteen would become "The Queen of Mbira" and nothing short of a national icon. Growing up on a musical diet of white American rock n' roll and country, she initially showed little interest in local traditional music. It was not until two years later, that Mbira started to ring inside her head "loud and endlessly". This overwhelming, mystical experience turned Chiweshe into an avid student of the instrument and the philosophy connected to it. But playing Mbira music was by no means a career option for women in the British colony of Rhodesia: none of the (male) musicians were willing to teach her. And, almost worse, none of the instrument makers agreed to build an instrument for a woman. Stella ended up recording her debut single "Kasahwa" (1974) on a borrowed thumb piano. "Kasahwa" made Stella a local sensation. After the country had become independent in 1980, Chiweshe started to tour internationally, first as a featured soloist of the new National Dance Company of Zimbabwe, and later under her own name. New mastering by Nick Robbins.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Includes download code. A collection of early singles by the renowned Zimbabwean Mbira master and a true African music icon, Stella Chiweshe. The songs were mostly recorded in the 1970s, during the buildup to the Chimurenga revolution, and were only ever released in Stella's home country. Stella's album Kasahwa: Early Singles offers a fascinating introduction to the world of Mbira, with the term not only referring to the instrument, but also to a musical genre -- and on a much wider level, to an entire culture and deeply spiritual lifestyle at the core of the young Zimbabwean nation. Mbira is an ancient mystical music which has been played for over a thousand years by the Shona people. Mbira pervades all aspects of Shona culture, both sacred and secular. Its most important function is as a "telephone to the spirits of people, water, trees, stones and birds," used to contact both deceased ancestors and tribal guardians, at all-night ceremonies. Kasahwa is a collection of impossible-to-find early seven inches, eight cuts spanning the period from 1974 to 1983 and representing Mbira in its purest form. None of these songs has been released outside of Africa so far. In her humble beginnings, little pointed to the fact that young Stella at sixteen would become "The Queen of Mbira" and nothing short of a national icon. Growing up on a musical diet of white American rock n' roll and country, she initially showed little interest in local traditional music. It was not until two years later, that Mbira started to ring inside her head "loud and endlessly". This overwhelming, mystical experience turned Chiweshe into an avid student of the instrument and the philosophy connected to it. But playing Mbira music was by no means a career option for women in the British colony of Rhodesia: none of the (male) musicians were willing to teach her. And, almost worse, none of the instrument makers agreed to build an instrument for a woman. Stella ended up recording her debut single "Kasahwa" (1974) on a borrowed thumb piano. "Kasahwa" made Stella a local sensation. After the country had become independent in 1980, Chiweshe started to tour internationally, first as a featured soloist of the new National Dance Company of Zimbabwe, and later under her own name. New mastering by Nick Robbins.

$23.50$19.98 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. Deep TR-808 bass meets pan-Maghreb beats, timeless voices, and futurist visions. AMMAR 808 was the sonic mastermind behind the Tunisian sensation: Bargou 08. On his debut release, Maghreb United, featuring the singers Mehdi Nassouli (Morocco), Sofiane Saidi (Algeria), and Cheb Hassen Tej (Tunisia), he connects the two to offer a radical, electronic reinvention of ancient North African music. AMMAR 808 started the project in 2017, after working with the lauded Bargou 08, searching for something to link the sense of what has been with what will be. "I'm trying to weave threads from folklore and mythology into futurism. And I'm not necessarily projecting a positive image; from all we can see, things aren't going in the right direction. What I hope is that it will raise an alarm." Yet there's also plenty of hope here. With singers from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, songs from the Targ, Gnawa, and Raï histories, and a TR-808 alongside a distorted gumbri (Nassouli), gasba flute, and zokra bagpipes (Lassaed Bougalmi), this is an album that reaches out to encompass the entire Maghreb area of North Africa. "In the past the Maghreb was one huge region, yet very diverse within its borders. But today, the world keeps every person separated. The album isn't so much about a united Maghrebi region, but how we can connect while observing our differences -- our differences are also our connection -- and using them to unify as humans." The choice of songs was also very deliberate for AMMAR 808, with nine of the ten cuts taken from the deep tradition. The idea for Maghreb United (which is also the name for the album's performing group) has long been burning in AMMAR 808, but it burst into flame after the musician and producer met all the singers on his regular trips in the region, before returning home to start building the tracks. The deep, rumbling growl of the gumbri, the dry, airy tenderness of the gasba, and the softly slithering zokra give a powerful North African root to the music, a thread that spins back through centuries. And the singers burn with fire and grace and passion.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Deep TR-808 bass meets pan-Maghreb beats, timeless voices, and futurist visions. AMMAR 808 was the sonic mastermind behind the Tunisian sensation: Bargou 08. On his debut release, Maghreb United, featuring the singers Mehdi Nassouli (Morocco), Sofiane Saidi (Algeria), and Cheb Hassen Tej (Tunisia), he connects the two to offer a radical, electronic reinvention of ancient North African music. AMMAR 808 started the project in 2017, after working with the lauded Bargou 08, searching for something to link the sense of what has been with what will be. "I'm trying to weave threads from folklore and mythology into futurism. And I'm not necessarily projecting a positive image; from all we can see, things aren't going in the right direction. What I hope is that it will raise an alarm." Yet there's also plenty of hope here. With singers from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, songs from the Targ, Gnawa, and Raï histories, and a TR-808 alongside a distorted gumbri (Nassouli), gasba flute, and zokra bagpipes (Lassaed Bougalmi), this is an album that reaches out to encompass the entire Maghreb area of North Africa. "In the past the Maghreb was one huge region, yet very diverse within its borders. But today, the world keeps every person separated. The album isn't so much about a united Maghrebi region, but how we can connect while observing our differences -- our differences are also our connection -- and using them to unify as humans." The choice of songs was also very deliberate for AMMAR 808, with nine of the ten cuts taken from the deep tradition. The idea for Maghreb United (which is also the name for the album's performing group) has long been burning in AMMAR 808, but it burst into flame after the musician and producer met all the singers on his regular trips in the region, before returning home to start building the tracks. The deep, rumbling growl of the gumbri, the dry, airy tenderness of the gasba, and the softly slithering zokra give a powerful North African root to the music, a thread that spins back through centuries. And the singers burn with fire and grace and passion.