I am a regular visitor to Tom Robinson’s site FreshOnTheNet which is a fantastic resource for new and emerging artists as well as a great source of new music for music lovers. Each Monday the inbox opens and artists can submit a track to FoTN (capped at 200) which a team of moderators whittle down to a list of 25 that goes live on Friday afternoon on the website’s ‘Listening Post’, There the public* get to choose their top 5 tracks before voting closes on Sunday evening. The top voted tracks become a shortlist of ‘Fresh Faves’ that stay on the site until the following Friday.
There are amazing tracks to hear each week spanning all genres from indie, R&B, rap, spoken word, pop and so on but every now and again a track comes up that needs to be heard far and wide. So it was for me when I heard ‘Sossadi Manayo’ by Gnawa State 7. Gnawa is a body of Moroccan religious songs and rhythms combining ritual poetry, traditional music and dance.
‘Sossadi Manayo’ has a tick-tock rhythm over a super-bouncy drum backing that has your head bobbing along as it lifts the corners of your mouth into a smile. It’s a ray of sunlight piercing a grey day and the strings swirl and swish around everything like starlings at dusk. Producers Harry Coade and Abel Dammousi have done an amazing job bringing a weightless joy to the whole project.
There is very little information on their Bandcamp page other than the fact that it features “the legendary Maalam Mohammed Kouyou. Combining the ancient sounds of North West Africa including instruments like the Ginbri and Krakeb, this track infuses soulful Rhodes, Moog Bass and strings with driving broken beats”.
Lead Vocals : Mohammed Fafy (Maalam Mohammed Koyo)
Ginbri: Mohammed Fafy (Maalam Mohammed Koyo)
Background Vocals & Krakeb: Said Fafy, Ahmed Saassaa, Radouane Mezgour, El Gasmi Mohammed, Hicham Boutgourine
Fender Rhodes, Bass & Synths: Harry Coade
Drum & String Programming: Harry Coade
Arrangement: Harry Coade & Abel Dammousi
*If your track makes it onto the listening post you must not promote it as the vote is not a competition, it’s a chance to have your music reviewed by music fans. You may also get your track disqualified.
Gnawa State 7 socials: Bandcamp | Instagram
Edit13/02: the Fresh Faves have been posted and Gnawa State 7 made it through the people’s vote so congratulations.
Review by Paul F Cook
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