Les Frères Talbi - Wallah Ma Qaddit

More vintage 1993 music this week, but from the eastern edge of Morocco rather than the west. This is a swell rai cassette from Al Ikhwane Talbi, aka Les Frères Talbi, that is, the Brothers Talbi (literally) or better the Siblings Talbi or the Family Talbi (idiomatically), specifically Abdelkader and Sara. 

1993 was a big time for rai music internationally. Moroccan artists had some national successes in the rai style, especially those from the northwestern cities of Berkane and Oujda. Those cities share regional musical styles similar to those of northwestern Algeria like Sidi Bel Abbès and Oran, the birthplace of rai. The Family Talbi hail from Berkane, and they had a breakout hit with the title track of this album, the catchy "Wallah Ma Qaddit"

According to a 2007 interview with Abdelkader [1], the Talbi family group went to France after their initial Moroccan successes to try their luck there. After some time in France, they returned to Morocco. Rai had declined in popularity at that point, so Abdelkader had the idea to work on new music based on the reggada folkloric style he grew up with in Berkane. He adopted the stage name Talbi One, and appears to have had a successful career as a pop-reggada artist - you can find Talbi One's music on all of the streaming platforms. Here's a 2019 track from him - it's got a great sound, and 19 million views to boot!:

Back to today's cassette: The Discogs entry for the album notes that arrangements were done by one Mustapha Asker, who appears to have worked with many great Algerian rai artists (Hasni, Nasro, Fadela...). However, I don't see Asker's name anywhere on the cassette shell or j-card. Whoever did the arrangements, they are nice. The bass player in me is delighted to hear some actual bass guitar rather than a synth bass here:

Abdelkader & Sara - Al Ikhwane Talbi عبدالقادر و صارة - الاخوان الطلبي
Wallah Ma Qaddit والله ما قديت
Dalaïphone cassette 5 ضالعيفون

A1 Wallah Ma Qaddit والله ما قديت
A2 Leila ليلى
A3 Lbareh Jani البرح جاني 
B1 Sidi Lhouari سيدي الهواري
B2 Toulmonde Iparti تولومند إبارتي
B3 Gouloulou Iwelli قولولو يولى 

FLAC | 320

[1] Interview with Talbi One by Fatima Nouali, Marrakech Express, RTM (Moroccan TV) 2007. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3513729372096559

Malika Ayoub - Milano Is Not My Homeland

This Moroccan rai tape is blowing up in my house right now. Specifically the leadoff track "Milano Machi Bladi (Milan is not my homeland)". It seems to date from the late 1990s. Great ghorba stuff.

The tape comes to us from the inimitable Gary of Bodega Pop, who generously donated a cache of tapes to the Moroccan Tape Stash stash recently!

I asked an AI chatbot where Malika Ayoub was from. It answered that she is from Agadir, but when I asked for its source for this assertion, first it crashed and asked me to try again later, then it admitted it made up the answer based on its algorithm. YouTube commenters suggest that she is either Riffiya or Berkaniya, so from somewhere in the northeast of Morocco. This would make sense from the rai stylings of this cassette. The final track "Haoul Ayourinou" is sung in one of the Amazigh languages. I thought it might be Middle Atlas Tamazight, but perhaps it is Tariffit. 

She appears to have been active as late as 2012 according to a post at the Last Night in Orient blog. The post is worth a click to view some vintage K7 j-cards and VHS inserts from her catalogue.

Several of her albums are streaming on the usual platforms. There's also this one uploaded by the YouTube channel K7 MAROC 90'S:

She also released some VHS tapes on Boussiphone, some of which can be seen in this playlist

Hope you enjoy!

Malika Ayoub مليكة أيوب
Casa Vision cassette CV 01 كازا ڨيزيون

A1 Milano Machi Bladi ميلانو مشي بلادي
A2 Ila Hchemti Tgouliha إلى حشمتي تڭوليها
A3 Lwaqt Ifout الوقت يفوت
B1 Akhir Houb Fhayati اخر حب في حياتي
B2 Noud Tkellem Llqadi نوض تكلم للقاضي
B3 Haoul Ayourinou حاول أيورينو

FLAC | 320