The Polisario Front dispute for independence is an ongoing
conflict between the Polisario Front of the Sahrawi people & Morocco.
The conflict is the continuation of the past insurgency by Polisario against
the Spanish colonial forces in 1973-1975 & the ensuing Western Sahara War
between the Polisario & Morocco
which lasted from 1975 until 1991. Currently large parts of Western
Sahara are controlled by the Moroccan Government. That area is
known as the Moroccan Southern Provinces, whereas some 20 to 25% of the Western Sahara territory remains controlled by the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the Polisario state which still has
limited international recognition. The questions of mutual recognition,
establishment of a possible Sahrawi state & the large numbers of Sahrawi
refugees displaced by the conflict are among the key issues of the ongoing Western Sahara turmoil.
I imagine everyone out
here in blogland is familiar with this group. Their releases are available
elsewhere. I just couldn’t fathom covering Western Sahara
without posting this. Group Doueh are one of my all-time favorite bands. From
out of the wind swept Sahara or from a space band in deepest reaches of the
galaxy that grew up listening to radio beams from the third stone from Sol,
this musick is some of the most alien & unique musick I have ever heard.
There is really nothing else like it. Group Doueh.
Born in Dakhla, Western Sahara in 1964, Hassaniyan Salmou Bamaar is an
accomplished electric guitar player, having played the instrument since
childhood. After performing in a variety of groups, he formed his own band, Group
Doueh, in 1981.
I have decide to post up
their debut album, Guitar Music from the Western Sahara, & their
latest release, Zayna Jumma, to contrast the rawness but essential
beauty of the first with the more polished yet expected perfection of their
most recent. Much of the material on the first release spanned several decades
of recordings culled from the tape archives of band leader Doueh (Salmou
Baamar). Doueh & his family/band traverse the timelessness of the Sahara that is so exactly mirrored in the chopped-up styles
& different eras reflected in the sweet personal North African blues the
band cultivated from their home in Dakhla.
Much has been written
about Doueh's childhood worship of Jimi Hendrix & James Brown. It is true
that those influences are obvious at times, but so are much influence from traditional
forms of Sahrawi & Gnawa music. One of his guitars pictured on the back of
the LP has extra frets added to allow Doueh to play the quarter tones that
western guitar designs don’t. Always his playing is electric in all senses of
the word; he effortlessly channels all the power of a sandstorm onto the six
strings of his guitar.
On the first side of Guitar
Music from the Western Sahara, some of the recordings are very tinny
sounding, especially the first two songs. This takes away from Doueh's
exceptional gutiar playing on songs like "Eid El Arsh". But these
songs were taken from home recordings, still a little rough but more than
acceptable. Although the recording quality may be sketchy, the power of the
music still comes through strong. On later songs, the recordings become much
cleaner & Doueh’s playing is given the space it deserves. Opening the second
side of the LP is "Dun Dan," a song on which Doueh plays lightning
fast sweeps unlike any other guitarist that I’ve ever heard.
On Guitar Music from
the Western Sahara, Group Doueh are: Bashiri – vocals; Doueh – guitar &
tinidit; Jamal – keyboards; & Halima Jakani – vocals & percussion.
Group Doueh – GuitarMusic from the Western Sahara, Sublime
Frequencies SF030, 2007.
decryption codes in comments
Side A –
Eid for Dakhla
Eid Al Arsh
Tirara
Fagu
Side B –
Dun Dan
Wazan Samat
Sabah
Lala
Cheyla Ya Haiuune
On their fourth release,
2011s Zayna Jumma, many of the sonic problems of Guitar Music…
have been addressed, overcome, & left in the blowing sandstorm of the Sahara. Hisham Mayet has much to do with this fact. Co-founder (along with Sir Alan Bishop) of Sublime Frequencies, & working with Group Doueh since their
debut release, he has added his expertise to the overall output. On the first
album he wrote the liner notes. On the second album, Treeg Salaam, he compiled
& edited the recordings for the release. By the third album, Beatte Haram,
he has taken over recording, as well as editing & compiling. On Zayna Jumma
he has optimized the bands sound, dampening the band's earlier lo-fi recording
techniques while maintaining the raw heart of the Group Doueh sound. He made
these recordings sound as spontaneous as possible. "Zaya Koum" feels
like you're sitting in on one of their earliest session in a cozy private
get-together in Dakhla, where Doueh is happy to play himself into guitar
oblivion while his family works around him.
Group Doueh has always been a family affair, with Doueh’s wife Halima on vocals & various percussion instruments, his son El Waar on organ & keyboards & son Hamdan on drums. Doueh himself alternates between a three-stringed lute called a tinidit & the electric guitar.
The tinny percussion
sound of earlier albums has been replaced by much more boisterous playing from
Hamdan. Here Doueh more regularly swaps out the tinidit for his electric
guitar. He even breaks out some chunky wah-wah guitar in "Ishadlak Ya
Khey", which might be the Group’s most rock song ever. The rock/pop/blues
melodies that have always been present are given greater clarity without losing
the pan-global mash-up of cultures Group Doueh has so ingeniously threaded
together.
At the heart of all this
extremely fantastic musick is the man whose name the group honors, Salmou
Bamaar…Doueh. His personality lies at the soul of this groups musick. He is a
humble man. He continues to run his cassette store. He still works at Group
Doueh's primary musickal outlet, a wedding band performing for friends,
neighbors & other Dakhlans. He had resisted all attempts to release his
music until Mayet travelled across a large part of northwest Africa
to meet him after hearing a few of his songs on the radio.
On Zayna Jumma, Group
Doueh are: Tricha – vocals & kass (tea glasses); Salmou Bamaar (Doueh)
- guitar & tinidit; El Waar Bamaar –
organ & keyboards; Halima Jakani – vocals, ardin (harp), & tbal (drum);
Lamnaya – vocals & tbal; Mohamed – bass (on “Met-Ha”); Bel Kheir – vocals
(on “Met-Ha”); Hamdan Bamaar – drums.
Group Doueh – ZaynaJumma, Sublime Frequencies – SF066, 2011.
Side A –
Zayna Jumma
Ishadlak Ya Khey
Zaya Koum
Met-Ha
Side B –
Jagwar Doueh
Aziza
Ana Lakweri
Wazan Doueh
Enjoy this strangely unique yet global blues for an injured planet,
NØ
Sorry I deleted your request to upload these when I deleted the old links.
ReplyDeleteThese are new links to the re-upped files. Thanks for letting me know they were dead.
Guitar Music
OiaW2XSi7ogZYgKRNzm3NoCPhWmUP1YrbNAuponnLao
Zayna Jumma
xGW1zINxxr9dqIYb9SKU6ESeoSf5PmorTYdXskEIZUM