Algerian chaabi pop.

‘After the afro-beat fury of Juguya, this second album combines a potent mix of traditional roots and modern Burkinabe funk with a reverent revival of the iconic Mandingue guitar music of the 1970s.’
Searing Sahelian dance music, recorded in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in February 2018.

Vintage rai.

Vintage rai.

Vintage rai.

Algerian chaabi.

Another round of forlorn songs about lost loves and other sorrows, driven by mid-tempo, wah wah guitars; this second volume tracking the Rai master into the 1990s.

Fantastic. Raw, blazing street music from Marrakesh. Electrified banjos and mandolins, drums, singing; amps run off moped batteries; the definitive interpretation of the Dana International hit Sabra And Shatilla.

The second volume in Abdou’s unmissable Nuits trio of LPs, this time featuring his Casablanca home-girl, sahrawi diva Naima Samih.

Giddy psych, funk, jazz and electronica freak-outs from Casablanca. A combination of original compositions and folk tunes, crazily blending together Abdou’s wigging organ, rough beat boxes, wayward kit-drumming and crisp north African percussion, a little Hank Marvin and some sporting sing-a-long, and plenty of unfit-to-drive reverb and tape delay. A facsimile reissue of this collectors’ item, first out in 1976. Ace.

The first reissue of this set, recorded in Paris in 1975, jubilantly blending funky Algerian rock and other North African sounds with jazz, Latin, boogie… A two-page insert carries new liner notes.

Deep hypnotic Moroccan folk.

‘Saharan trance stun guitar… a hypnotic choogle that rivals both the Magic Band’s early 70s marathon workouts and the Velvet Underground’s drone on tracks like Sister Ray.’