A Drop From The Ocean Of Rouicha

There are so many recordings by the late Mohamed Rouicha (1950-2012) - they all sound pretty similar, and they're all pretty great - well recorded, solid performances, killer grooves, entrancing lotar plucking, soulful baritone singing from Rouicha in call/response with the piercing soprano voices of the backup singers, all animated by the incessant buzzy time-keeping of the bendir frame drums. 

I've identified at least 65 cassette releases by Rouicha on the Tichkaphone label. These were preceded by some 7" vinyl releases on Koutoubiaphone (which later became Tichkaphone) and on Bouissiphone, and followed by some cassette/CD releases on the MasterOne label in the last decade of his life, including his famous late-career hit "Inas Inas".

Many of the Tichkaphone albums can be found on YouTube, but the digital transfers are often thin-sounding and sometimes corrupted. This cassette rip comes to us from Peter Doolan (blogmaster at มนต์รักเพลงไทย), and it's a great improvement over what you can hear elsewhere online.

For those who want to dig into some of the meanings of Rouicha's songs, here's a recent article in English: 

• Mounia Mnouer. The Amazigh Musical Style of Rouicha: Transcending Linguistic and Cultural Boundaries. Review of Middle East Studies. 2022, 56(2):264-276.

There's not much scholarly or critical writing on Rouicha - I hope more will appear!

Rouicha Mohamed رويشة محمد
Tichkaphone cassette TCK 1157 تشكافون
A1 Ana Noussik أنا نوصيك
A2 La Smaha Lli Kan Sbab لاسماحة اللي كان سباب
B1 Hatta Line حتى لين
B2 Lahbiba Latgouli Lawah لحبيبة لا تڭولي لواه

FLAC | 320

Orchestre Houcine (Eddoug) - Nouveaute 90 (File Under Massnawa, Part Two)

Ooh here's a good one, unearthed at a friend's house in El Sobrante. It's a vintage 1990 chaâbi album credited to Orchestra Houcine. The artist is one Houssine Eddoug, who rose to fame as a member of the group Massnawa out of Casablanca. 

We've written a little bit about Massnawa here. The key members of that group are the brothers Rachid and Hamid Batma, with lyrical help from their brother Mohammed Batma of the group Lemchaheb. (All of them are brothers of the legend Larbi Batma of Nass el Ghiwane.) The name Massnawa refers to the tribal group from which the Batma family originates, and it resonates with the rural (ârobi) musical inspiration for the group's early works. For more info on the origins of the Massnawa group, see this documentary (in Arabic) about the group that aired on the Moroccan channel 2M:

The documentary highlights the contributions of the Batma brothers. However, another key component of Massnawa's sound was the vocals and buzuq playing of Houssine Eddoug. Here is a clip of him performing (well, lip-syncing) with Massnawa: 

  

<--- You can also find this fine Massnawa album featuring Houssine over at Bodega Pop. Houssine is pictured at top left.

I haven't found much information about Houssine's history or career trajectory. I gather that he was one of the original members of Massnawa when they formed in 1980, that he continued with the group for quite a few years but at some point he moved to Italy. I see some solo recordings of his on the Ajial Ghiwania2 YouTube channel that refer to him as Houcine al Messnawi الحسين المسناوي and on the Hafed Vision channel as Messnawa Houssine. 

The album we're sharing today hits all my chaâbi sweet spots:

• That raucous drum kit high up in the mix
• Orchestre driven by a plucked string instrument - the buzuq sounds fantastic here
• Aita-based forms, melodies, and singing styles.
• We'll forgive the keyboard-bass here. It's light, unobtrusive, and in-the-pocket
• Keyboard accompaniment is inventive in terms of timbre and texture, never overpowering or overbearing.

So yeah, grab this thing below or stream it on YouTube here 👇🏼 It's a chaâbi good time!

Serendipitously Similar Posts note: This tape rhymes with the tape we shared in our recent post about Zitouni Bourgogne insofar as it:

• Features a musician who:
• rose to fame with a 1980s Casablanca-based group, who 
• was less famous than other members of that group, and who
• is noted as an important and creative member of that group in YouTube comments.
• Is a 1990s solo album by that musician that 
• is more conventionally chaâbi than the music of their former group and that
• rocks 
• Was gifted to me by a dear friend 

Orchestra Houcine اركسترا الحسين
Nouveaute 90
Presente Par Sawt Ennassime 
Sawt Nassim cassette EN 574

A1 Rijal L-Ghaba
      Rah Ellil راح الليل
A2 Khoukoum Al-Bnat خوكم البنات
A3 Mina مينا
B1 Mina (continued) مينا
B2 Saken Hrizi ساكن حريزي
B3 Ana F-Hmak Htta Nmout 

 FLAC | 320

Alfannana Aicha - Zayane Star

Here's a killer tape that comes to us from Friend-of-the-Stash Polina. It's a vintage 1990s cassette from the Zayane region - Tamazight speakers from the area of Beni Mellal/Zaouiat Cheikh/Khenifra - before the era of auto-tune and drum programming. Scratchy viola, buzzy bendirs, and powerful vocals from the singer Aicha. The cassette j-card refers to her as Najmat Zayane (The Zayane Star) and Alfannana Aicha (The Artist Aicha). The Aicha pictured on the j-card resembles the singer in this GREAT clip - Aicha el Hajeb  عائشة الحاجب, also known as Aicha Oulbomzough:

 

It looks like the same Aicha to me, but all the music I can find online by Aicha el Hajeb is very traditional, slow-tempo music. What's on this cassette is of a much more uptempo variety, and I'm not sure whether the voice is the same:

 

If this is indeed Aicha el Hajeb, then this tape is something of a rarity - I've seen no other listing of recordings by her, but many YouTube commenters have praised her artistry and lamented her retirement from performing.

To complicate matters, the artwork from the j-card indicates that it was published by Nachat Ezzaouia (perhaps it is a company from the city of Zaouiat Cheikh), whereas the cassette shell reads "Ain Asserdoun Disque عين إسردون ديسك", a company from Beni Mellal. So it's possible that the music on the cassette does not match the artist in the photograph. 

Whatever the case may be, the music is some down-home Zayane goodness. Thanks Polina for the share, and Happy Thanksgiving to our US American friends.

Alfannana Aicha الفنانة عائشة
Najmat Zayane نجمة زيان
Nachat Ezzaouia cassette 123 نشاط الزاوية

FLAC | 320