Bab L’ Bluz announce new album
Come, enter the world of Swaken, the much anticipated second album by Bab L' Bluz.
Wed, 14 February 24
Track of the day: ‘IWAIWA FUNK’ by Bab L’ Bluz
French-Moroccan power quartet Bab L' Bluz, have released the third track from their forthcoming album Swaken. This new track, entitled 'IWAIWA FUNK' is played on the electric mandole, sung in the higher-pitched vocal style found in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains and themed to remind us that life is short, resentment is futile and dance — whirling, hair-whipping dance — is a conduit to the soul.
Condemning those who cause suffering to others or are blinded by those harmful actions and their inevitable consequences, ‘IWAIWA FUNK’ underscores the importance of listening to distress calls and never underestimating others, whilst advocating for kindness, reflection on our actions and compassion. Life is fleeting…
Recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, written partly in Morocco – the birthplace of frontwoman Yousra Mansour — and mostly across a world tour that took the band from Adelaide, Barcelona and New York to Essaouira in Morocco, Lomé in Togo and Dougga in Tunisia. Mansour’s melismatic voice has never sounded so forceful, or the riffage from her electric awisha lute so mighty. Her bandmates Brice Bottin, Ibrahim Terkemani, Jérôme Bartolome (on everything from keyboards, flutes and electric guembri to drums, backing vocals and qraqeb castanets) interact with what might be telepathy, their playing skilled and tight.
Swaken, released on 10 May, is eleven tracks that spark and pulse with kinetic, pedal-to-the-metal energy. 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.
Swaken is released on 10 May 2024, available on Blue Vinyl / CD / Digital.
Featured release
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Released 10 May 2024
Welcome to the world of Swaken, the second album by French-Moroccan power quartet, Bab L' Bluz. Recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, written partly in Morocco — the birthplace of frontwoman Yousra Mansour — and mostly across a world tour that took them from Adelaide, Barcelona and New York to Essaouira in Morocco, Lomé in Togo and Dougga in Tunisia. Eleven tracks that spark and pulse with kinetic, pedal-to-the-metal energy.
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