Mamouat Abde ElHakim, Direct from the Djma al Fna

Tuesday, March 30 2004 @ 07:34 AM EST

Contributed by: ARomero

Seattle, USA - Post World Industries has released an Internet only album by Majmouat Abde ElHakim. The album is available from Post World Industries or Amazon.

Majmouat roughly translates as "band." Abde ElHakim is the name of the band leader; he is the one-eyed man with the handlebar mustache that graces the CD cover. The group includes four other regular members, who play banjo, tarija (small hourglass drum), bendir (frame skin drum with snare), and darbuka (larger hourglass drum from Egypt).

The songs are mostly in the style of Dekka El Marrakshia (or Dak al Marrakshia) which is a very popular style of music in Morocco right now, but nearly unheard of outside that nation's borders. The songs are mostly constructed of a loping 6/8 drum pattern with cascades of call response vocals which, towards the end of a song or section, accelerate into ecstatic yells. Abde ElHakim's gravely voice was destroyed by a lifetime of performing outside.

The majority of the tracks are from a professional multitrack session conducted in a courtyard deep in the medina of Marrakech. In between each of these session tracks are excerpts from the groups live performances in the Djema al Fna, including the dialogue from their aggressive money collections. Read the story of the recording session here.

Track Listing
  1. live excerpt
  2. allash allash / ahua lik (hear clip)
  3. live excerpt
  4. ash dani / kily joly
  5. lawah lawah / ikescuz me (hear clip)
  6. live excerpt
  7. ana radi / alatif alatif (hear clip)
  8. live excerpt
  9. allala
  10. live excerpt (hear clip)

    11. World Music Central
    http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20040327173441196