Showing posts with label hasaan hakmoun unity gapplegate guitar and bass review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hasaan hakmoun unity gapplegate guitar and bass review. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2014

Hassan Hakmoun, Unity

Traditional Gnawa music from Morocco has something to it that is hard to resist. The three-stringed bass instrument called the sintir sets up riff ostinatos, a group of percussionists get with the groove and there are solo vocals and response choruses with plenty of soul.

It now seems inevitable that such a music would find someone to update the music by fusing it with riff-bluesy rock. Hassan Hakmoun, excellent sintir player and vocalist, has electrified his instrument, added metal-blues guitar and rock-funk drums to the mix and created a hybrid music that works completely.

You can hear it to excellent advantage on his latest album, Unity (Healing Records). The album goes from strength-to-strength in an unending string of movingly hip numbers. Anyone with the ears for Afro-groove and hard rock-blues will be drawn into this one right away, I would think, like I was.

It is a music of great excitement! Go with it!