The charge of Club Tounsi comes from the ground up. Street noise, hand-played drive, coded repetition. AMMAR 808, Tunis-born, Copenhagen-based Sofyann Ben Youssef, builds each track from mezoued’s raw materials: the rasp of goatskin bagpipes, the circular pull of darbuka, the call-and-response patterns shaped in alleyways, rooftops, weddings. These sounds aren’t quoted or sampled. They’re recorded live across Tunisia, restructured and looped into systems that speak in rhythm and weight.
Released on 23 May via Glitterbeat, the album marks a tighter focus in AMMAR 808’s evolving practice. While earlier records stretched across North Africa and South India, this one turns inward. It builds from mezoued, the raw, street-rooted folk form shaped in 1950s working-class Tunis, reasserting its sonic and cultural weight within a global dance context.
During summer 2023, Ben Youssef travelled to Tunisia and captured spontaneous, location-based performances by ney players, percussionists and vocalists. These sessions retained ambient noise and texture — breath, room tone, interference. He later reworked those recordings in his Copenhagen studio, constructing each track with minimal overdubs and tight sequencing. Rather than placing electronics over tradition, he treated mezoued as the foundation.
The first track “Douri Douri” centres on Sufi vocalist Brahim Riahi’s chant — “turn around” — looped over spiralling percussion and grounded sub-bass. In “Ah Yallila”, fluttering ney phrases weave through buzzing bagpipes, while classically trained singer Mariem Bettouhami and traditional mezoued performer Mahmoud Lahbib exchange vocals that blur invocation and cadence. “Brobba” compresses distorted brass and clipped darbuka into taut loops that punch forward.
On “Aman Aman”, Bettouhami’s auto-tuned voice slows a traditional love ballad into spectral lament, gliding over detuned pads and sluggish percussion. “Lelliri Yamma” ends with quiet control, repeating a single ney motif under low-register vocals that lean towards intimacy.
The palette stays minimal yet deliberate. Zukra, ney, darbuka and 808s form the sonic spine. Though the rhythms follow fezzani’s 6/8 structure, common in Tunisian street celebrations, Ben Youssef retools them with electronic clarity. He keeps vocal takes unfiltered, allowing background sounds and irregular breath to remain active elements. Production decisions prioritise dryness, proximity, and physical impact.
The visuals reflect the album’s core. Directed by Fatma Ben Aissa and Frame, the accompanying videoclips move through natural, domestic, and public spaces across Tunis, capturing moments that respond to rhythm and atmosphere rather than staged choreography. Space, form, and gesture intertwine, each frame embodying the music’s grounded texture — a physical expression of the album’s living sound.
Similarly, Club Tounsi doesn’t archive mezoued or adapt it for external consumption. Instead, Ben Youssef reconstructs it as a living system. Precise, tactile, and driven by form, the album propels folk logic directly into the electronic present, needing no translation.
AMMAR 808's Club Tounsi landed on 23 May via Glitterbeat Records. Grab your copy HERE & dive into the raw pulse of Tunisian street sound reimagined for today’s dancefloors