Bab L’Bluz – Nayda! [Real World Records; July 2020]
This is a very exciting debut album by French-Moroccan band Bab L’Bluz. Lead singer Yousra Mansour and multi-instrumentalist Brice Bottin recently learned the awashi and guembri (sintir/bass lute) while exploring their love of Gnawa music and ended up in a four-piece psychedelic blues rock band. It really is much more than something that can be easily defined and there is something for everyone in this album – it’s funky, it’s soulful, it’s traditional and it’s modern.
James Moss