BAB L’ BLUZ
Welcome to the world of Swaken, the highly anticipated second album Bab L’ Bluz.
Eleven tracks that spark and pulse with kinetic, pedal-to-the-metal energy.
Swaken
New Album Out Now
Losing yourself to find yourself is a central tenet of Swaken, an album whose warm analogue sound nods to such ’70s rock icons as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Nass El Ghiwane, Morocco’s very own Rolling Stones, social justice warriors who mixed western rock and folk with a trance aesthetic influenced — as is that of Bab L’ Bluz — by Gnawa lilas, the all-night healing rituals intended for sacred spirit possession.
“There are still times when we are confronted with outdated attitudes... which only makes me more determined to express everything I feel. I will not censor myself.”
Yousra Mansour
Discography
Swaken
Eleven tracks that spark and pulse with kinetic, pedal-to-the-metal energy. This is ancient-to-future music, rooted as much in psychedelic blues, funk and rock as in the trancey, propulsive rhythms of northern Africa’s Maghreb: Gnawa, Amazigh, Hassani and Houara music.
Nayda!
Think old-school Gnawa meets funk. Moroccan chaabi meets trance. The sung poetry of Mauritania meets the deep spiritual cry of the blues. Imagine ninja-style flute, propulsive drums and percussion including spiralling metal qraqeb castanets. Wrap it all up in the turned-on-tuned-in psych rock grooves of such countercultural heroes as Santana, Jefferson Airplane and Nass El Ghiwane, Morocco’s very own Rolling Stones.