Ammar 808, the nom-de-guerre of the Tunisian producer Sofyann Ben Youssef, takes its number from the Roland TR-808 synthesiser, the analogue source of the deep bass drum sound to be found on records stretching from Marvin Gaye to 1980s hip-hop. This album deepens the work he did with Bargou 08 on last year’s album Targ. Then, his synth lines formed the bedrock for songs from one small town in mountainous Tunisia; here, as the album title suggests, the backdrop is the whole of the Maghreb and Ben Youssef’s aim to forge connections across a fractured region. “In the past”, he says, “the Maghreb was one huge region, yet very diverse within its borders. But today, the world keeps every person separated. The album isn’t so much about a united Maghrebi region, but how we can connect while observing our differences.”
Accompanying him on a set of traditional songs that span Gnawa and Rai, plus Bargou 08’s Targ, are three different singers: Mehdi Nassouli from Morocco, Sofiane Saidi from Algeria and Cheb Hassen Tej from Tunisia. The soundscape combines the deep rumble of the TR-808, laden with distortion and filters, with organic instruments: the harsh prickle of Nassouli’s gimbri (a desert lute), pushed into overdrive; the insistent chirp of gasba (flute) and the bubbling undercurrent of zokra (bagpipes), both played by Lassaed Bougalmi.
The opening clatter of “Degdega” frames a guttural warning about a woman: “they say she is wild, they say she is trouble, they say she is dangerous”, the percussion breaking off for a moment for a synthesiser whirl. Over handclaps interspersed with zokra, the narrator of “Ain Essouda” passes his greetings to “the lady with the blue tattoo”. Cheb Hassen debates and ultimately dismisses the rival claims to beauty of a black pearl and a white on the old rai classic “El Bidha Wessamra” as handdrums skitter around the rhythm. “Leyli”, of which Eric Clapton’s “Layla” is a very distant cousin, sees Nassouli’s gimbri riffing at full tilt, leading into a looping barked gnawa freakout.
As the cover suggests, this is a manifesto for Northafrofuturism, a deliberate projection of a positive possible future; insistent, relentless, entranced.
Source : https://www.ft.com/content/07505c3c-67dc-11e8-b6eb-4acfcfb08c11
