Here's a very nice and interesting cassette from the recently departed, much missed Mustapha Baqbou, and it's unlike any other album of his I've heard.Maalem Baqbou left us a fair number of recordings - Discogs currently lists 10 albums und…
Here's a cassette of Aita Haouzia from the year 2000. The performers are the group Ouled el Haouz featuring Shikh Hassan Dariouki (here misspelled as Darouki, elsewhere spelled Driouki or Daryouki). During my fieldwork time in Morocco, they…
Another Rouicha banger for your digital cassette rack. I obtained this tape recently. One of my favorite Rouicha tapes is TCK819 (now reupped in FLAC!), so I wondered whether TCK820, whose j-card features the same photo and yellow color sch…
Here's a nice old-school Gnawa cassette from Mâalem Mohamed Daoui. During my research days (late 1990s - early 2000s), Daoui was the most well known Gnawa mâalem from Meknes. I believe he was the primary interlocutor for the German research…
Here's a nice old-school Gnawa cassette from Mâalem Mohamed Daoui. During my research days (late 1990s - early 2000s), Daoui was the most well known Gnawa mâalem from Meknes. I believe he was the primary interlocutor for the German research…
More vintage 1993 music this week, but from the eastern edge of Morocco rather than the west. This is a swell rai cassette from Al Ikhwane Talbi, aka Les Frères Talbi, that is, the Brothers Talbi (literally) or better the Siblings Talbi or
Here's new digitization of one of my favorite Gnawa cassettes. I shared a version of this back in 2011. I recently obtained a new copy of the tape and a new cassette deck too, so I thought I'd try to improve the sound compared to the earlie…
It's about time we got around to posting about La Tabaamrant! Fatima Tabaamrant (b. 1962) is a powerhouse singer, songwriter, and activist for Amazigh and women's rights. In addition to being a pivotal figure in Soussi music, she served as
This tape comes to us courtesy of Peter at the still active, still great มนต์รักเพลงไทย blog. The group is called Toudadine. I gather that the word toudadine is the female plural in Tachelhit for the Barbary sheep (ewes). The male plural fo…
It's 2026 and the heyday of the music blog recedes into the rearview mirror of our music consumption patterns along with the era of the cassette tape itself. However, there's still plenty of North African musical goodness being shared onlin…
Here's some recent shares that might pique your interest: Marc at Hive Mind has been sharing some great cassette audio at "Name Your Own Price" on his Bandcamp page. These generally disappear after 1 month, but he's currently made all four
It's been a minute since we posted any ahwach - the communal song and dance performance tradition from Tachelhit-speaking regions of Morocco. Ahwach can take on very different forms from place to place or from occasion to occasion. Today's