Moroccan music

Traditional music, both folk and classical, remains very much a part of life in Morocco, evident at every celebration. Every popular or religious festival involves musicians, and the larger moussems are always good. Keep an eye out for cultural festivals, too, in particular the summer Asilah Festival, the Essaouira Gnaoua Festival, the Marrakesh Festival of Popular Arts, and the Festival of World Sacred Music in Fez.

Berber music

Berber music predates the arrival of the Arabs in Morocco, and comes in three main categories: village music, ritual music and the music of professional musicians.

Village music is performed when men and women of a village assemble on festive occasions to dance and sing together. The best-known dances are the ahouache, in the western High Atlas, and the ahidus, performed by Chleuh Berbers in the eastern High Atlas. In each, drums (bendirs) and flute (nai) are the only instruments used. The dance begins with a chanted prayer, to which the dancers respond in chorus, the men and women gathered in a large ring in the open air, round the musicians. The ahouache is normally performed at night in the patio of the kasbah; the dance is so complicated that the musicians meet to prepare for it in a group called a laamt set up specially for the purpose. In the bumzdi, a variation on the ahouache, one or more soloists perform a series of poetic improvisations. Some of these soloists, such as Raïs Ajmaa Lahcen and Raïs Ihya, have a national reputation.

Ritual music is rarely absent from celebrations such as moussems or marriages. It may also be called upon to help deal with jinn, or evil spirits, or to encourage rainfall. Flutes and drums are usually the sole instruments, along with much rhythmic hand clapping, although people may engage professional musicians for certain events.

The professional musicians, or imdyazn, of the Atlas mountains are itinerant, travelling during the summer, usually in groups of four. The leader of the group is called the amydaz or poet. He presents his poems, which are usually improvised and give news of national or world affairs, in the village square. The poet may be accompanied by one or two members of the group on drums and rabab, a single-string fiddle, and by a fourth player, known as the bou oughanim. This latter is the reed player, throwing out melodies on a double clarinet, and also acting as the group’s clown. Imdyazn are found in many weekly souks in the Atlas.

Rwais

Groups of Chleuh Berber musicians, from the Souss Valley, are known as rwais. A rwai worthy of the name will not only know all the music for any particular celebration, but have its own repertoire of songs – commenting on current events – and be able to improvise. A rwai ensemble can be made up of a single-string rabab, one or two lotars (lutes) and sometimes nakous (cymbals), together with a number of singers. The leader of the group, the raïs, is in charge of the poetry, music and choreography of the performance. Fine clothes, jewels and elaborate gestures also have an important part to play in this ancient rural form of musical theatre.

A rwai performance will start with the astara, an instrumental prelude, played on rabab, giving the basic notes of the melodies that follow (this also makes it possible for the other instruments to tune to the rabab). Then comes the amarg, the sung poetry which forms the heart of the piece. This is followed by the ammussu, which is a sort of choreographed overture; the tamssust, a lively song; the aberdag, or dance; and finally the tabbayt, a finale characterized by an acceleration in rhythm and an abrupt end. Apart from the astara and tabbayt, the elements of a performance may appear in a different order.

Andalous music

Morocco’s classical music evolved in Muslim Spain (Andalusia) though its invention is usually credited to an outstanding musician from Baghdad called Zyriab. One of his greatest innovations was the founding of the classical suite called nuba, which forms what is now known as Andalous music, or al-âla. There are, in addition, two other classical traditions, milhûn and gharnati, each with a distinctive style and form. Andalous music is very popular and greatly loved; during Ramadan, nightly programmes of Andalous classics are broadcast on TV, and people without their own sets gather in cafés to watch them.

The nuba

Originally there were twenty-four nuba linked with the hours in the day, but only four full and seven fragmentary nuba have been preserved in the Moroccan tradition. Complete nuba last between six and seven hours and so are rarely performed in one sitting. Each nuba is divided into five main parts, or mizan, of differing durations. These five parts correspond to the five different rhythms used within a suite. If a whole nuba were being performed then these five rhythms would be used in order: the basît rhythm (6/4); qaum wa nusf rhythm (8/4); darj rhythm (4/4); btâyhi rhythm (8/4); and quddâm rhythm (3/4 or 6/8).

Traditionally each mizan begins with instrumental preludes – bughya, m’shaliya and tuashia – followed by a number of songs, the sana’a. There can be as many as twenty sana’a within a given mizan, although for shorter performances an orchestra may only play three or four before going on to the next rhythm.

The words to many sana’a deal, though often obliquely, with subjects generally considered taboo in Islamic society like alcohol and sex – perhaps signifying archaic, pre-Islamic and nomadic roots – although others are religious, glorifying the Prophet and divine laws.

When the Arabs were driven out of Spain, the different Andalusian musical schools were dispersed across Morocco. The school of Valencia was re-established in Fez, that of Granada in Toua and Chefchaouen. Today, the most famous orchestras are those of Fez (led by Mohammed Briouel), Rabat (led by Haj Mohamed Toud) and Tetouan. Many fans of Andalous music mourn the passing of the “golden age” in the 1970s and 1980s, when a trio of much lamented masters – Abdelkrim Rais, Abdesadak Chekara and Moulay Ahmed Loukili – led the Fez, Tetouan and Rabat orchestras.

A typical Andalous orchestra uses the following instruments: rabab (fiddle), oud (lute), kamenjah (violin-style instrument played vertically on the knee), kanun (zither), darabouka (metal or pottery goblet drums), and taarija (tambourine). Each orchestra has featured unusual instruments from time to time. Clarinets, flutes, banjos and pianos have all been used with varying degrees of success.

Milhûn

Milhûn is a semi-classical form of sung poetry. Musically it has many links with Andalous music, having adopted the same modes as al-âla orchestras, and, like them, it uses string instruments and percussion, though the result can be quite wild and danceable. Unlike Andalous music, which has always been the province of an educated elite, milhûn was originally the poetic expression of artisans and traders. Indeed, many of the great milhûn singers of the twentieth century began their lives as cobblers, tanners, bakers or doughnut sellers. The greatest milhûn composer was Al-Thami Lamdaghri, who died in 1856.

The milhûn suite comprises two parts: the taqsim (overture) and the qassida (sung poems). The taqsim is played on the oud or violin in free rhythm, and introduces the mode in which the piece is set. The qassida is divided into three parts: al-aqsâm, verses sung solo; al-harba, refrains sung by the chorus; and al-drîdka, a chorus where the rhythm gathers speed and eventually announces the end of the piece. The words of the qassida can be taken from anywhere – folk poetry, mystical poems or nonsense lines used for rhythm.

A milhûn orchestra generally consists of oud, kamenjah, swisen (a small, high-pitched folk lute related to the ginbri), the hadjouj (a bass version of the swisen), taarija, darabouka and handqa (small brass cymbals), plus a number of singers. The most renowned milhûn singer of recent times was Hadj Lhocine Toulali, who dominated the vibrant milhûn scene in Meknes for many decades before his death in 1999. Contemporary singers of note include Abdelkrim and Saïd Guennoun of Fez, Haj Husseïn and Abdallah Ramdani of Meknes, Muhammad Berrahal and Muhammad Bensaïd of Salé, and the brothers Mohammed and Ahmed Amenzou from Marrakesh. In the past ten or so years, some female singers have become stars, including Touria Hadraoui (who is also a novelist) and Sanaa Marahati, whom many consider the future of milhûn.

Gharnati

Gharnati, the third music of Arab–Andalusian tradition, derives from the Arabic name of the Andaluisan city of Granada. It is mainly played in Algeria, but Rabat and Oujda are centres for it in Morocco. As with al-âla, it is arranged in suites or nuba, of which there are twelve complete and four unfinished suites. The gharnati orchestra consists of plucked and bowed instruments together with percussion: the usual ouds and kamenjahs supplemented by the addition of banjo, mandolin and Algerian lute or kwîtra.

Sufi music

Among the Sufi brotherhoods, music is seen as a means of getting closer to Allah by reaching a trance-like state of mystical ecstasy. In a private nocturnal ceremony called the hadra, Sufis may attain this by chanting the name of Allah or dancing in a ring holding hands. The songs and music are irregular in rhythm, and quicken to an abrupt end. Some brotherhoods play for alms in households that want to gain the favour of their patron saint.

The best-known Moroccan brotherhood is the Gnaoua – whose members are descendants of slaves from across the Sahara. They claim spiritual descent from Sidi Bilal, an Ethiopian who was the Prophet’s first muezzin. Gnaoua ceremonies are often held to placate spirits, good and evil, who are inhabiting a person or place. They are often called in cases of mental disturbance or to help treat someone stung by a scorpion. These rites have their origins in sub-Saharan Africa, and African influence is evident in the music. The main instrument, the ginbri or sentir, is a long-necked lute almost identical to instruments from West Africa. The other characteristic sound of Gnaoua music is the garagab, a pair of metal castanets. Each Gnaoua troupe is lead by a ma’alem, or “master”, who plays the ginbri and sings the lead vocal parts. The ceremonial part of the proceedings is usually led by a female mogadema, or “medium”, who is mistress of the arcane spiritual knowledge and huge gallery of saints and spirits, both good and evil, that underpin and influence Gnaoui ritual. In recent decades Gnaoua music has been blended with jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop and even drum ’n’ bass. Essaouira holds an annual festival dedicated to Gnaoua music.

Jilala are another brotherhood – the devotees of Moulay Abdelkader Jilal. Their music is perhaps even more hypnotic and mysterious than that of the Gnaoua and sometimes seems to come from a different plane of existence. The plaintive cycling flute (qsbah) and mesmeric beats of the bendir (frame drums) carry you forward unconsciously. While in a trance, Jilala devotees can withstand the touch of burning coals or the deep slashes of a Moroccan dagger, afterwards showing no injury or pain.

Other Sufi brotherhoods still practising their own brand of psychic-musical healing in various parts of Morocco include the Hamadja, followers of Sidi Ben Ali Hamduj and Sidi Ahmed Dghughi, two saints who lived at the end of the eighteenth century, and the Aissaoua from Meknes, who venerate the sixteenth-century holy man Sidi Mohamed Ben Aïssa. The boundaries between these different brotherhoods are often quite blurred, and they tend to hold a common veneration for many saints and spirits, prominent among whom is the fiendish female jinn Aisha Kandisha.

Folk instruments

The most common stringed instrument is the ginbri, an African lute whose soundbox is covered in front by a piece of hide. The rounded, fretless stem has two or three strings. The body of the smaller treble ginbri is pear-shaped, that of the bass ginbri (hadjuj or sentir) rectangular. The Gnaoui often put a resonator at the end of the stem to produce the buzz typical of Black African music. The lotar is another type of lute, used by Chleuh Berbers. It has a circular body, also closed with a piece of skin, and three or four strings which are plucked with a plectrum. The classic Arab lute, the oud, is used in classical orchestras and the traditional Arab orchestras known as takhts. Its pear-shaped body is covered by a piece of wood with two or three rosette-shaped openings. It has a short, fretless stem and six strings, five double and one single. The most popular stringed instruments played with a bow are the kamanjeh and the rabab. The former is an Iranian violin which was adopted by the Arabs. Its present Moroccan character owes a lot to the Western violin, though it is held vertically, supported on the knees. The rabab is a spike fiddle, rather like a viol. The bottom half of its long, curved body is covered in hide, the top in wood with a rosette-shaped opening. It has two strings. The Chleuh Berbers use an archaic single-stringed rabab with a square stem and soundbox covered entirely in skin. Lastly, there is the kanum, a trapezoidal Arab zither with over seventy strings, grouped in threes and plucked with plectra attached to the fingernails. It is used almost exclusively in classical music.

Rapid handclapping and the clashes of bells and cymbals are only part of the vast repertoire of Moroccan percussion. Like most Moroccan drums the darbuka is made of clay, shaped into a cylinder swelling out slightly at the top. The single skin is beaten with both hands. It is used in both folk and classical music. The taarija, a smaller version of the darbuka, is held in one hand and beaten with the other. Then there are treble and bass tan-tan bongos, and the Moorish guedra, a large drum that rests on the ground. There is also a round wooden drum with skins on both sides called a tabl, which is beaten with a stick on one side and by hand on the other. This is used only in folk music. As for tambourines, the ever popular bendir is round and wooden, 40 or 50cm across, with two strings stretched under its single skin to produce a buzzing sound. The tar is smaller, with two rings of metal discs round the frame and no strings under its skin. The duff is a double-sided tambourine, often square in shape, which has to be supported so that it can be beaten with both hands. Only two percussion instruments are made of metal: karkabat, also known as krakesh or karakab, double castanets used by the Gnaoui, and the nakous, a small cymbal played with two rods.

The Arab flute, known by different tribes as the nai, talawat, nira or gasba, is made of a straight piece of cane open at both ends, with no mouthpiece and between five and seven holes, one at the back. It requires a great deal of skill to play it properly, by blowing at a slight angle. The ghaita or rhaita, a type of oboe popular under various names throughout the Muslim world, is a conical pipe made of hardwood, ending in a bell often made of metal. Its double-reeded mouthpiece is encircled by a broad ring on which the player rests his lips in order to produce the circular breathing needed to obtain a continuous note. It has between seven and nine holes, one at the back. The aghanin is a double clarinet, identical to the Arab arghoul. It consists of two parallel pipes of wood or cane, each with a single-reed mouthpiece, five holes and a horn at the end for amplification.

Chaabi – Morocco’s pop music

Chaabi simply means “popular” music – which covers a huge mix of styles, just as it does in the West. More or less since the advent of radio, the whole Arab world has listened to Egyptian popular songs. The tradition is epitomized by Umm Kulthum (Oum Khalsoum) and Mohammed Abdalwahab, but Morocco has added names of its own to the tradition, in particular Houcine Slaoui (in the 1940s), and in the following decades, Ahmed Bidaoui, Abdelhadi Belkhayat and Abdelwahab Doukkali. These stars tended to record in Cairo or Beirut, and their music – and language – is essentially Egyptian.

Al’aïta

The oldest of Morocco’s own chaabi styles is al’aïta, the music of the Arabic-speaking rural populations of Morocco’s Atlantic coast. It is performed at private and public celebrations, as well as in concert, and is usually sung in Darija (Moroccan colloquial Arabic). Its songs tell of love, loss, lust and the realities of daily life. They begin with a lafrash, a slow instrumental prelude (usually played on the violin), then move into free rhythm verses before shifting gear for the finale or leseb, which is often twice the speed of the song and forms a background for syncopated clapping, shouting and dancing. An al’aïta ensemble usually consists of a male or female vocalist, a violinist, and several percussionists and backing singers, though some groups add a lotar. Stars over the years have included the singers Bouchaïb el Bidaoui and Fatna bent Lhoucine, and the (literally) six-fingered violinist, Abdelaziz Staati. In the 1990s, an electric style of al’aïta developed, adding keyboards, electric guitars and drum machines. This is still very popular and is the music you most often hear blasting out of stalls in Casablanca or Rabat. Top artists include Orchestre Jedouane, Orchestre Senhaji, Khalid Bennani and Moustapha Bourgogne.

Chaabi groups

During the 1970s, a more sophisticated Moroccan chaabi began to emerge, using hadjuj (bass ginbri), lute and bendir percussion, along with bouzoukis and electric guitars, to combine Berber music with elements of Arab milhûn, Sufi and Gnaoua ritual music, Western rock, reggae and, more recently, rap. The songs were often political, carrying messages that got their authors into trouble with the authorities – even jailed. The leading lights in this movement were Nass el Ghiwane, Jil Jilala and Lemchaheb. The music was hugely influential in the development of raï music in neighbouring Algeria, where raï singers like Khaled, Cheb Mami, Chaba Fadela and Chaba Sahraoui emerged in the 1980s.

In the 1980s, another wave of chaabi groups emerged, based in Marrakesh and employing Gnaoua rhythms. One of the most successful of these has been Muluk el Hwa (Demon of Love), a group of Berbers who used to play in Marrakesh’s Jemaa el Fna. By far the most popular of the Berber chaabi singers, however, is singer Najat Aatabou, whose sensational debut, J’en ai marre (“I am sick of it”), sold 450,000 copies – many of them in France.

Moroccan raï

Raï – meaning “opinion”, “outlook” or “point of view” – originated in the western Algerian region around the port of Oran. It has traditional roots in Bedouin music, with its distinctive refrain (ha-ya-raï), but as a modern phenomenon has more in common with Western music. The backing is now solidly electric, with rhythm guitars, synthesizers and usually a rock drum kit as well as traditional drums. Its lyrics reflect highly contemporary concerns – cars, sex, sometimes alcohol – which have created some friction with the authorities.

Jewish Moroccan Music

Moroccan Jews, many of whom have now emigrated to Israel, left an important legacy in the north of the country, where their songs and ballads continued to be sung in Haketia, the medieval Spanish spoken at the time of their expulsion from Spain five centuries ago. Apart from the narrative ballads, these were mainly songs of courtly love, as well as lullabies and biblical songs, usually accompanied on a tar. Rounder Records released Sacred Music of the Moroccan Jews, a two-CD set of Paul Bowles’ 1959 recordings of Moroccan Jewish liturgy, which transport you into the heart of what was once a vibrant subculture but is now, sadly, almost extinct in Morocco.

From Morocco’s Jewish community came Zohra el Fassia, the grande dame of Moroccan music in the 1950s, who was from Fez. Moroccan Jewry also produced a great classical Arabic singer, Samy el Maghribi, who was born in Safi in 1922. Inspired by the Algerian singer Say el Hilali, he was one of the most appreciated Arabic singers of the 1950s. In 1960 he moved to Canada and in later years devoted himself to a liturgical repertoire. Moroccan Sephardic traditions and music continue to thrive in Israel, the best-known names including Albert Bouhadanna and Rabat-born Emil Zrihan, whose music mixes Arab and Andalusian influences with the Hebrew liturgy.

For anyone interested in Jewish Moroccan music, Chris Silver’s blog at jewishmorocco.blogspot.com is an invaluable resource.

Moroccans have taken easily to the music, especially in the northeastern part of the country around the towns of Oujda and Al Hoceima, an area that shares the same cultural roots as the province of Oran over the border in Algeria, where raï was born. Home-grown raï stars include Cheb Khader, Cheb Mimoun and the superb Cheb Jellal, a pop-raï legend from Oujda whose recordings are well worth seeking out. Raï influence can also be heard in the sound of folk artists like Rachid Briha and Hamid M’Rabati, from the Oujda region.

Fusion and Moroccan hip-hop

Morocco was the starting point for all kinds of fusion experiments, with such disparate figures as Brian Jones, Ornette Coleman, Jimi Hendrix, Robin Williamson, John Renbourn and Pharaoh Sanders attracted by its rhythms. One of the earliest attempts to combine Moroccan music with European electronic sounds was made by the German group Dissidenten in the 1980s, and since then all manner of Moroccan sounds have been successfully blended with reggae, funk, hip-hop, house and drum ’n’ bass.

Hip-hop in particular has become immensely popular in Morocco, as throughout Africa, and accounts for some of the most dynamic Moroccan music of the twenty-first century so far, having taken over from raï in the 1990s as Morocco’s popular musical genre. Breaking out of a largely localized underground scene, bands like Fnaïre from Marrakesh, H-Kayne from Meknes and Fez City Clan from Fez have galvanized the Moroccan pop scene, singing about social and political issues with a hard-edged lyric. They are joined by rock-influenced Casa band Hoba Hoba Spirit, who owe more to punk than to heavy metal, despite their track “El Caïd Mötorhead”. They reacted to the 2003 Casablanca bomb attacks with “Ma Tkich Bladi” (“Don’t touch my country”), a play on the French anti-racist slogan “touche pas mon pot”, and put themselves in the forefront of the pro-democracy movement, with their 2011 single “La Volonté de Vivre”.

All this is more daring than foreigners might realize: musicians are not as free in Morocco as they are in the West, a fact brought home in 2003, when the authorities imprisoned members of the heavy metal bands Nekros, Infected Brain and Reborn, along with five of their fans, on charges of moral depravity and playing “anti-Islamic” music. Moroccan rapper L7a9d (pronounced “El Haqed”) was imprisoned for two years in 2011 for criticizing the monarchy in his records, and has been subject to constant harassment ever since. Following the release of his album Walou in 2014, he was arrested at a football match and imprisoned for four months, supposedly for ticket touting and assaulting police. He now lives in Belgium.

Discography

Most music shops in Britain and the US with a decent world music section should yield at least a few discs of ethnic, folk and Andalous music, or fusion with European groups. In Morocco itself, cassettes are still common.

Compilations

Various Morocco: Crossroads of Time (Ellipsis Arts, US). An excellent introduction to Moroccan music that comes with a well-designed and informative book. The disc includes everything from ambient sounds in the Fez Medina, to powerful Jilala and Gnaoua music, Andalous, rwai, Berber, and some good contemporary pop from Nouamane Lahlou.

Various The Rough Guide to the Music of Morocco (World Music Network, UK). This Rough Guide’s release focuses on contemporary Moroccan sounds, featuring selections from the Amenzou Ensemble, Nass el Ghiwane, Nass Marrakech, Jil Jilala, Mustapha Bourgogne, Bnet Marrakech and U-cef. It is backed up by fulsome liner notes.

Various Anthologie de la Musique Marocaine (Ministère de la Culture, Morocco). These four box sets (with a total of 31 CDs) cover most bases in Moroccan folk and traditional music. All include liner notes in French and Arabic and can be purchased at the Ministry of Culture in Rabat.

Berber music

Compagnies musicales du Tafilalet The Call of the Oasis (Institut du Monde Arabe, France). Sublime recordings from the edge of the Sahara, showcasing four groups recorded live at a festival in Erfoud.

Hmaoui Abd El-Hamid La Flûte de l’Atlas (Arion, France). Hypnotic and haunting flute-like ney, backed by percussion, oud and zither.

Les Imazighen Chants du Moyen-Atlas (Institut du Monde Arabe, France). A fantastic live recording of musicians from the Middle Atlas, full of power and extravagant emotion.

Classical/Andalous

Ensemble Amenzou Le Malhûn à Marrakech (Institut du Monde Arabe, France). The Amenzou brothers belong to a revered dynasty of milhûn singers and their energetic, youthful approach to the genre is much admired.

El Hadj Houcine Toulali Le Milhûn de Meknes (Institut du Monde Arabe, France). A fine live recording of the great milhûn master on top form.

Ustad Massano Tazi Musique Classique Andalouse de Fès (Ocora, France). Again, beautifully recorded and presented. Includes Nuba Hijaz Al-Kabir and Nuba Istihilal.

Various Maroc: Anthologie d’Al-Melhûn (Maison des Cultures du Monde, France). A three-CD set containing performances from many of Morocco’s finest milhûn singers. An excellent introduction.

Sufi music

Les Aissawa de Fès Trance Ritual (L’Institut du Monde Arabe, France). Entrancing and intricate music from the Aissawa brotherhood of Fez.

Ihsan Rmiki Al-Samâa: Ecstatic Spiritual Audition (Institut du Monde Arabe, France). Rmiki is the new voice of Andalous music – and this is a moving set, her voice leading a six-person ensemble.

The Master Musicians of Jajouka Apocalypse Across the Sky (Axiom, UK). The power and clarity of these remarkable performers stands out on this Bill Laswell production.

Various Gnawa Night – Music of the Marrakesh Spirit Masters (Axiom, UK). Gnaoua music at its evocative best, again recorded by Bill Laswell.

Jewish Moroccan music

Samy El Maghribi Samy el Maghribi (Club du Disque Arabe, France) A collection of old recordings by this legendary Jewish musician whose pride of place in the annals of Moroccan music proves what a big influence Jews once had on urban music.

Chaabi

Najat Aatabou The Voice of the Atlas (GlobeStyle, UK). A superb collection of some of Najat’s best-loved songs, including “Shouffi Rhirou” which has been covered brilliantly by the 3Mustaphas3.

Jil Jilala Chama’a (Blue Silver, France). A classic early recording of the seminal chaabi rockers. The title track “Chama’a” (“Candle”) is an old milhûn song which is given a very moody and edgy modern makeover.

Nass el Ghiwane Maroc: Chants d’Espoir (Créon Music, France). Many recordings by the “Rolling Stones of North Africa” are marred by atrocious sound quality; however, this set captures them razor-sharp and passionate.

Fusion

Aisha Kandisha’s Jarring Effects El Buya (Barbarity, Switzerland). An intoxicating mix of Moroccan melodies and traditional string instruments with scratching reverb and rushes of industrial noise.

Hoba Hoba Spirit Blad Skizo (Platinum Music, UK). Hoba Hoba’s second album, released in 2005, contains some of their strongest Morocc’n-roll tunes, most notably the title track (“Schizophrenic Country”) and the more Gnaoua-flavoured “Ma Ajebtinich”.

MoMo The Birth Of Dar (Apartment 22, UK). House-flavoured Moroccan madness with a heavy dance beat. Dar means “house” in Arabic…you get the picture.

U-cef Halalium (Apartment 22, UK). A Moroccan producer based in London who fuses the roughneck sounds of the English capital with traditional chaabi and Gnaoua, often to wondrous effect.

Moroccan hip-hop

Fez City Clan Fès. Slicker, more tuneful and more electronic than Morocco’s other hip-hop bands, the Clan have taken their very underground Fassi sound nationwide and beyond. This is their first album, and like all really worthwhile pleasures, it leaves you craving for more.

Fnaire Yed el Henna. Fnaire’s amazing mix of hip-hop with a wide assortment of traditional Moroccan music makes a richly sweet combination. Tunes like the title track and the percussive “Lalla Mennana” are a truly masterful combination of rap and trad.

H-Kayne HK 1426. The Meknes rappers’ sound is deeper, darker and purer than most Moroccan hip-hop. This album, named after the Islamic year in which it was recorded (2005), contains their biggest hit, “Issawa Style”.

L7a9d Walou. The music is surprisingly mellow on this latest album from the controversial Casa rapper, human rights activist and Arab Spring supporter, especially considering the hard-hitting nature of his lyrics. Unless you speak Arabic, you probably won’t register much of the political message, but English translations of some of his tracks are available online, and the sound is lovely anyway.

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