Mustapha Baqbou - Negcha: Dancing Together Out Of Our Constrictions

Here's another great cassette by Mustapha Baqbou: a nicely recorded effort with Maalem Mustapha accompanied by what sounds like 4 singers who also provide percussive accompaniment in the form of the tapping of cassette tapes and a couple jingly percussion instruments - possibly the sersara (shaker plate with jingles) that normally sits atop the neck of the guinbri . The jingles are not to my taste - perhaps they were meant to be a more gentle accompaniment than the crazy-making sound of the qarqaba iron clackers. However, they feel sloppier than qarqabas because one cannot control the jangle of the jingles after the plate is struck. Qarqabas or cassette tapes, on the other hand, give a very controlled sound with a very quick decay after they are struck.

Despite the jingle jangle issue, the tape is very enjoyable. The guinbri and the vocals are strong, and the album includes almost the entirety of the Negcha suite (minus a couple of fadeouts). As always Mustapha gives a master class in how to manipulate one or two simple guinbri phrases into endless, compelling variations.

Negcha is the second of the two Fraja (entertainment) suites that open the Gnawa lila ceremony. I adore the Negcha, and I find it the most joyful part of the lila. The Gnawa dancers move counter-clockwise in circle formation, facing inwards toward each other. Although Negcha song texts lament the Gnawa of old who have passed on and recall the slave experiences of the Gnawa forbears, the rotating Negcha dancers celebrate life together in the present moment. Dancers lock eyes with each other across the circle and coordinate their spins, crouches, and leaps. Older musicians in attendance join the circle to share the moment. Most movement in the lila is that of an individual body (dancer or trancer) coordinating/dialoguing with the phrases of the guinbri. In the Negcha, it's a collective endeavor, it's about the group. 

Thanks for continuing to stop by Moroccan Tape Stash after all these years. Here's wishing you all the best in 2026. May we find a chance to joyfully dance our way out of our constrictions.

Mustapha Bakbou مصطفى باقبو
Edition Hassania cassette EH1598
1995

Side A: Negcha (Oye Waye) - Lalla Fatima - Tanglamo - Chabakro - Bukiriri
Side B: Mbirika - Allah Ya Buderbala - Rebbi Moulay - Hada Waâdo Meskin - Zid El Mal - Yomala| 

FLAC | 320

Discographic notes:

• My copy of the cassette contains a faint clicking that runs through the entire tape. You can only hear it in the fadeouts or introductions. Other pressings of the album seem not to include this - you can hear a clean copy at Cafe Matich's YouTube (Side A | Side B). I think you will like my version, though. As usual, I have used Logic's Mastering Assistant tool to tease out a more dynamic sound from the cassette.
• Cafe Matich dates this to 1985, but I think that date is incorrect. The catalog number EH1598 is very close to Najat Aatabou's EH1595, which is undoubtedly from 1995. I'm pretty sure the Baqbou album dates to 1995 as well.

Noujoum Bourgogne - Donia Ghadara

Here's a tape from chaâbi pioneers Noujoum Bourgogne. As mentioned in our recent post about Zitouni Bourgogne, the group came out of the Bourgogne neighborhood of Casablanca in the mid-1980s, distinguishing themselves from the typical chaâbi ensemble by eschewing keyboards, guitars, and drum kits in favor of the bendir and târija folk drums. In their use of folk instruments, their approach resembles that of the Ghiwani groups, but they retain the driving kamanja of the chaâbi ensemble and their songs are more suited for the dance floor than those of their Ghiwani contemporaries.

The sound on this album rather thin, so I did a remix to pump up the drums a bit:

 

I later found that the album can be heard on streaming platforms in a version much cleaner version than my cassette copy:

But y'all come here for that old well-loved cassette sound, right? So avail yourself to whatever version suits your taste and enjoy this fine slice of vintage chaâbi goodness!

Noujoum Bourgogne نجوم بورݣون
Donia Ghadara لدنيا غضارة (2025 Moroccan Tape Stash Remix)
A1 Donia Ghadara لدنيا غضارة
A2 Lghorba لغربة
B1 Mnin Nebda Lehdite منين نبدا لحديث لحدي
B2 El Mejdouba المجدوبة 

FLAC | 320

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