A fabulous fusion of the traditional with the modern and a brilliantly infectious, mesmeric, polyrhythmic melange created by the Moroccan producer Abdellah M. Hassak, who blends analogue synths, drum machines, and field recordings from Morocco, Tanzania, Guinea and more, exploring themes of themes of identity, Pan-Africanism, Afrofuturism, and decolonisation. “I wanted to have a cultural sound that explored innovation with African and diasporic music alongside the vibes of rhythm and the vibes of bass,” says Hassak, challenging how African richness has long been marginalized by technological tools and systems of thought shaped by Western logic and models of standardisation. The name Guedra Guedra refers to a Moroccan traditional dance from Saharan communities, and a type of cooking pot that can be adapted into a drum by stretching a leather skin over the top of it.
It’s a riveting, exciting, energising record, leading the listener ever more hypnotic levels across track after track, from opener Drift of Drummer, featuring the djembé drum, a West African instrument played in fields to energise workers with rhythms mirroring the sounds of labour. The richness and pace lifts even more with the colourful fusions of standout Paradigm, bringing synth chords and kicks with call-and-response voices from the Maasai people of Tanzania and Kenya. Tribes With Flags is an emotive ambient track featuring a spoken-word piece by award-winning French-Egyptian direction Jihan El-Tahri, imagining a future archaeologist sifting through Africa’s modern history and wondering whether “Pan-Africanism has died or is simply awaiting revival.” Renegade is fabulously captivating and syncopated, bringing sampled voices and infectious, brilliantly bass-y grooves, but this is a mere taste of many other seductive sounds and rhythms to come, from the frenzied dance pace of Calling Out or Ring of Fire, to the quieter, slower, more elegiac and elegantThe Arc of Three Colours and Tamayurt, the oddball, eclectic street and horn sounds of Four Lambs and or the gentle shuffles, clicks, whirs and birdsong on the beautiful electric forest of Enlightenment. Aït Crossing and Uggug make add two brilliantly dancey bonus tracks. A truly transportive, entrancing, stimulating, bouncy and beautiful creation, one of the most enjoyable alternative culturally enriching released anywhere this year. Out on the Domino Records imprint Smugglers Way.
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