Lila

Gnawa in Manhattan? Grammy–nominated Innov Gnawa are just that, four Gnawi led by Fes-born maalem Hassan Ben Jaafer, with Samir LanGus from Agadir, Amino Belyamani from Casablanca and Ahmed Jeriouda from Sale. The US could do with a lila – the intense, extended night ceremonies at the heart of Morocco's Gnawa culture of trance and transformation through the root-blues of the gimbri, chorus and qaraqab percussion.

The 2018 EP Aicha mixed electronic programming with classic Gnawa instrumentation – but Lila is a pure, unadorned take on the tradition, and the six extended pieces are drawn from the repertoire of ‘the night doctors,’ though in compacted form. The music was recorded at Brooklyn's Daptone House of Soul, where Amy Winehouse recorded Back to Black, and while Gnawa is extremely difficult to record well – it's hard to capture the full weight of the bottom-end without losing the brightness and clarity of the top – Innov Gnawa build up full heads of steam on the extended ‘Chorafa’, a song associated with Moroccan great Hamid El Kasri. I could enjoy more heft in the gimbri's sound, but there's no faulting the strength of maalem Jaafer's playing.