Nayda!

Nayda, or ‘waking up,’ was the word given to the alternative music scene 2000s in the wake of the Arab Spring. Performed in the local Arabic dialect mainstream Moroccan art using slang and experimental music styles to address highly controversial themes.

Bab L'Bluz, a Moroccan-French quartet fronted by lead vocalist and gimbri player Yousra Mansour, fully embodies this spirit on their debut album Nayda!, an explosive fusion of psychedelic Moroccan Gnawa music with blues, rock, funk and dub. Breaking from the male-dominated tradition, Mansour sings, ululates, and fires riffs from her awicha (a small gimbri), powerfully denouncing the corruption of government officials and celebrating the transcendental nature of love.

Without being fusion music, Nayda! maintains a wealth of styles. ‘Ila Mata’ has a dub-like trance to it, ‘El Gamra’ almost descends into rap at the end of the song, and ‘Glibi’ features a gimbri riff halfway-through that sounds as though plucked from a country-blues track. ‘Welcome to the truth that can be told without any fear,’ Mansour sings in Darija on the opener, ‘Gnawa Beat’, and sure enough, this is fearlessly rebellious music, an electrifyingly modern take on a traditional style.