Maybe it’s the mountains, maybe it’s the instrument, whatever ‘it’ is, this new (2015 originally but only released on YouTube) mini-album of gorgeous banjo led music from the Anti-Atlas region of Southern Morocco shares musical DNA with the original blues and mountain folk of the USA in the early 20th Century. Resilient, prolific and deeply immersed in the music and poetry of the Tachelhit speaking Amazigh (or Berber) tribes of the Anti-Atlas mountains, Hassan Wargui is the real deal. A self taught musician, composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he has recorded a ton of music in between the daily hustle of work and despite the lack of music industry in the country. Surprisingly the banjo has been the main instrument in the country since the 60s/70s but listening to his picking and voicing makes sense when thinking as an outsider about the sonic qualities of the region. The banjo cuts through beautifully alongside the complex and hypnotic percussion and yearning voices.
All of the tracks on ‘Tiddukla’ "(‘Friendship’) were written by Hassan and we see him and his group paying homage and tribute to the haunting, soulful sounds of classic Amazigh groups such as Izenzaren, Archach and Izmaz, the originators of singing in their own language of Tachelhit when to do so meant persecution and imprisonment by their Arab invader-rulers long ago.
There is a deep hypnotic charge about this music that contains a calming power that reveals more and more emotion on each listen. Hive Mind have pulled a blinder here by releasing a number of Hassan’s recordings but then the Brighton label has form with superb releases by fellow Moroccans Moulay Ahmed El Hassani and gnawa god Maalem Mahmoud Gania so hopefully with their help (and ours) Hassan will gain the audience he so obviously deserves. Beautiful.
RELEASED JUNE 4TH 2021 ON HIVE MIND RECORDS
