Rouicha - Aouraamache Aouri Ta3fat

Another Rouicha banger for your digital cassette rack. I obtained this tape recently. One of my favorite Rouicha tapes is TCK819 (now reupped in FLAC!), so I wondered whether TCK820, whose j-card features the same photo and yellow color scheme, might come from the same session and might be as jamming or be in a similar vein.

I've been trying to get my mind around the Rouicha discography for a while. He has released so many recordings over the years, the largest chunk being the cassettes on Tichkaphone. Between Discogs, various other online sources, and what I have on hand, I've identified almost 80 individual cassettes released on Tichkaphone, dating I would guess from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s. Like most Moroccan tapes, none of them list a release date or copyright date. One can assume that the catalog number listed on the cassette j-card indicates the sequence in which they were released. That may be so, but it's not clear whether the music contained on those cassettes was newly recorded at the time of release or had been sitting in the can for some time. As I related in my first Rouicha post in 2011, I visited the Comptoir Marocain de Distribution de Disques in Casablanca, which also served at that time as the headquarters of Tichkaphone. This would have been in around 2001. I was told that they had around 30 albums worth of Rouicha recordings that had not yet been released. It would sure be nice to know when the various songs and albums were recorded and released.

One think I noticed while compiling my list of Tichkaphone cassettes is that they appear to be released in groups of 2, sometimes 4 consecutive catalog numbers. In most of these cases, one release would feature songs in the Tamazight language while its companion release would be in Moroccan Arabic darija. Doubling up the production one each release would seem to maximize the appeal to the different linguistic audiences. 

Back to the tape at at hand - it is the Tamazight companion to the Arabic release TCK819. It is excellent, but it does not feel or sound like the same session, despite the consecutive catalog numbers. Where TCK819 has a warm, dynamic sound, this one is thin, sounding almost like an AM radio broadcast compared to an FM broadcast. With the miracle of modern music apps, I was able to warm up and fill out the sound to give the lotar more of the round, low-end sound we know and love, and to give the bendir more of that good boom and buzz. I think it turned out alright and I don't think these songs are online anywhere else. Enjoy!

Rouicha رويشة
Tichkaphone cassette TCK 820 تشكفون

A1 Aouraamache Aouri Ta3fat ْأورَامَشْ أوُري تَعْفَات
A2 Awerd Agankh ْأورْدَاڭَّنْخ
B1 Magharghat Taddout ْمَاغَرْغَاتْ تَدُّوت
B2 Maayatousaawat ْمَايَتْوَصّات

FLAC | 320

Rouicha - Rarad Amazan رَارَادْ أَمَزَانْ

Here's another Rouicha album that I don't see on any of the streaming platforms. 

Rouicha's albums are always sung either completely in Arabic (Moroccan darija) or completely in Tamazight (Middle Atlas dialect). Today's offering is the first one I've shared where he sings in Tamazight. Although the grooves and rhythms are basically the same as on his Arabic songs, the melodies tend to be a little different - less wide ranging, remaining in a narrow ambitus. Interestingly on this tape there are 3 distinct vocal groups - Rouicha singing solo, a female respondent group, and a male respondent group.

Enjoy!

Rouicha نجم الموسم رويشة و مجموعته
Tichkaphone cassette TCK788 تشكافون

A1 Aghoudeh Labas أَغْدحْ لَابَاسْ
A2 Awaroutn Ayoulinou أَوَارُوتْنعْ ايْولِينوُِ
B1 Rarad Amazan رَارَادْ أَمَزَانْ
B2 Ahidous أحِيدُوسْ

320 | FLAC

Rouicha - Ayam Essghur Zina

Here's a nice album from the late, sorely-missed Rouicha. I picked this up in 2012 - The Tichkaphone catalog number seems to indicate (from my estimate) that it dates from the mid-1990s.

I particularly like the opening lotar solo on track 2 - Rouicha has such a fluid, rapid, percussive strum, it sounds almost flamenco! (Or maybe it's just that the melody sounds like the Concierto de Aranjuez...) At any rate, enjoy!

We've got more Rouicha in the stash here and here. And Yala has scads of Rouicha available for listening, though not this particular album.

Rouicha Mohamed - Tichkaphone TCK 1241
Ayam Essghur Zina ( أيام الصغر زينة)

01 Ayam Essghur Zina
02 Suwwelt Rasi Lyoum (excerpt below)
03 Feen Tghib Lahbib
04 Khellit Sammu7 Same7ni

Get it here.

Rouicha R.I.P. (1950-2012)

Very sad to report the passing of the great Mohammed Rouicha. Thanks for the great tunes and your warm spirit. This is my other favorite Rouicha tape. Has the classics "Lil el Lil" and "Lahbiba", and fills out the last 4 minutes of side 2 riding out the groove with a lotar jam.

1) Lil el-Lil
2) Lakin ana Mellit
3) L-Hbiba

4) A Khuya ma Tkerh el Jamal
5) (ta'rida)

Get it here.

2026 update: FLAC

Also worth a listen is a recent collaboration between Rouicha and the Moroccan rock band Hoba Hoba Spirit - just hitting the interwebs this week:

Grab Bag o' Izlan & 'Aita from mrsblucher

First off - if you use Firefox, I highly recommend you install the Lazarus add-on - it makes a cache of things you type in forms so that if you spend 2 hours writing and formatting a nice blog post or email and then Blogger eats your draft (or your system crashes), you can recover what you wrote rather than having to start from scratch again. Unfortunately, I learned that a little too late - I'd meant to post these a couple weeks ago, but haven't had time to re-write my post since Blogger ate my draft...

Many thanks to mrsblucher for passing along this cache tape dubs! Some found objects, some heard in long taxi rides, and some obtained for their bitchin' covers. Mrsblucher recently posted a cool rai tape to his new blog, which you should check out. (Lots of other great vinyl goodies over there, including bird song, post-punk, and Boris Karloff reading Aesop's fables...)

On to the goods: 

Cheikh el-Maati el-Marrakchi (Sawt Al Menara, TC, Morocco)

A kicking 'aita offering (sounds like Safi-style to me) with viola and oud, darbuka, bendir and ta'rija, and a trio of unidentified vocalists belting it out. I could listen to this stuff all nite long...

A01) Suwwel ya L-Kubida / 'Ala Qablu Jaya / Ghzali Ghzali / Rja' Ya L-Mkhasmni
B01) Rja' Ya L-Mkhasmni (cont'd)
B02) Hadik Mmwi, Hadik Khti / Haouz Haouz
B03) La Bas

Get it here. 

Salah Asmaali - (Editions Hassania EH1125, 

TC, Morocco, 198-)

Some 'aita song lyrics have verses that flow together into a more or less narrative or structured form. Others are really free flowing, allowing singers pick and choose couplets from a stock repertoire to suit the mood of the audience. In this stripped-down 'aita recording (one viola, one bendir, occasional finger cymbals), the single vocalist delivers a string of short couplets over the course of 2 sides. I could only match one song title definitively (L-Gnawi, at the end of side 2) - the rest of the pieces follow the unidentified singer on a taxi ride through a landscape of stock themes - lost love, persecution, shout-outs to different cities, madness and possession.

I think this style, which features long viola answers to each sung couplet, is called za'riya, but I could be wrong.

A01) Hsab Za'ri - Sherrebuk Elluz
A02) Saleb 'Aqli
B01) Tab Qalbi
B02) Ma Lqit Ahbab - L-Gnawi

Get it here. 

Salah Asmaali - (Editions Hassania EH1127, 

TC, Morocco, 198-)

Another tape from the same violist, but with in different style. It opens up with some more za'riya, but then moves into more structured songs with refrains and a chorus of vocalists and several percussionists. The blatant patriotism of "Sahara Biladi" is balanced by the cool pilgrimage song for Moulay Abdellah.

A01) Wash Ja Idir / Moulay Abdellah ben Imghar
A02) Hada Hali Ya L-Mwima
B01) Sahara Biladi / Erribta Ezzughbiya

Get it here.

Unknown Artist - Middle Atlas Amazigh Guitar (Voix Bassatine) (found tape, Morocco)

And rounding out the cache is a swell find - more of that great slinky electric-guitar-driven izlan from the Middle Atlas. Wish I knew who the artists were! Unlike the tape shared in my previous post on this style, the ensemble here adds a viola and synth bass to the mix.

5 rocking tunes here.

***

And don't forget to visit mrsblucher's blog to complete the cache with a groovy rai compilation tape.

***

Rouicha at African Music Treasures

Haven't had to time to get any more Rouicha together for ya. In the meantime, though, I did stumble across this post from a couple years ago that has a nice article and selected cuts from Rouicha. Enjoy!

African Music Treasures - Rockin' Rouicha

Moulay Ahmed Elhassani - Middle Atlas Amazigh song with slinky electric guitar

Glad y'all enjoyed the Rouicha cassette. I had some requests for more from this genre. I've got some more good Rouicha, but thought I'd offer this one up first. Same genre (Middle Atlas izlan), same bluesy groove. Moulay Ahmed Elhassani does it using a slinky, phased-out electric guitar instead of the lotar, and drum programming (or a really tight rhythm section of a single bendir, darbuka and drum kit) instead of the bendir section.

Does it still jam? Oh yes! Unlike many Moroccan genres where increases in tempo are typical over the course of a song, izlan tend to set a groove and tempo right at the beginning of the song, and stick to it all the way through. So the drum programming (if that's what it is) works pretty well. And the guitar sounds great - psychedelic, but using almost the same phrasings you'd expect from the lotar. Though if you pay attention, you'll hear the occasional string-bending (e.g., the fade-out of track 2) that you can only get on a guitar.

BTW1 - On the cassette cover, I'm pretty sure I can spot an extra fret bar on his guitar (at the far right of the photo), which lets him hit the quarter-tone pitches when he needs them.

BTW2 - No song titles are listed here. The j-card says only "various amazigh songs"

This tape dates from around 1997. The early tapes of his that I heard were all in Tamazight. Apparently he records and performs in Arabic as well, as in this TV performance (which features an odd looking instrument - appears to be a 6-string guitar converted to use 4 thick strings - like the lotar):



Get it here.

Mohammed Rouicha - 'Afak al-hwa hda 'liya, Nari 'ala zzin hlakni bil nakhwa

This is my fave, most jamming Rouicha tape. The Middle Atlas izlan genre is the bluesiest of Berber genres to my ear, and Rouicha makes the lotar talk like no other. By recording in both his native Tamazight and in Moroccan Arabic (as in this tape from the 1980s), Rouicha popularized this groove across the Moroccan population.

Rouicha is so cool that, like with James Brown's record labels, he gets his picture not only on the cassette sleeve, but on the shell too.

Active since the 1970s, Rouicha continues to pump out the tapes/CDs/VCDs. There are dozens. Last time I visited the Comptoir Marocain de Distribution de Disques, which is also the Tichkaphone records headquarters, I was told there were still 30 albums in the can, ready to be released. They never stray far from the formula - deep, round lotar tones contrast with the insistent rattling buzz of bendir frame drums, and Rouicha's earthy baritone voice alternates with the piercing responses of the female backup singers. Why mess with a good thing?

There's loads of good Rouicha on YouTube, but not much of his music has been released outside of Morocco.

Get some here.