Polynomial distortion on BPM delayed patterns.
By changing the coefficients, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
non-negative integer exponentiation of variables will distort the
sound.
Roland Kuit - ARP 2500 & KYMA
From the spiritual polyrhythms of gnawa to the looping vocalisations of Sufism and the percussive tessellations of Berber folk, the world of north African cultures meet in the music of Morocco. Producer Abdellah M Hassak, AKA Guedra Guedra, has taken these rhythms as the core of his work. His name comes from the Berber dance music performed on the guedra drum; his debut EP, 2020’s Son of Sun, explored these diffuse roots through a dancefloor filter, with added field recordings and electronic Midi sequencing, a junglist collage that straddles tradition and contemporary dance musics.
Hassak’s debut album extends this idea over the course of 13 propulsive and complex tracks. ‘Seven Poets’ samples a group chant over birdsong and snappy hi-hats that evoke footwork’s stacked rhythms – encompassing the dancefloors of Chicago and the desert-scape of Berber song. The Chicago sound also leaves its mark on the bouncy Stampede Step with its shrill flute melody and growling bassline, and Aura samples the chants of the Zayane mountain community: chopping their circular incantations over rumbling sub-bass, the effect renders them as verse and a kind of crowd sound.
Instead of simply pasting decontextualised field recordings over bright electronics, Hassak integrates these folk elements into the mix and allows them to breathe. He incorporates the clatter of the bendir drum on the rollicking Aura, a smattering of hand claps over the house piano of Cercococcyx, and the shrill arpeggios of the taghanimt flute on the drum machine-heavy 40’ Feet. In this way, Hassak weaves tradition into his own interpretations of dance, allowing space for the acoustic to interact with the electronic, not remixing the former beyond the point of recognition (a common pitfall in this type of work). On Vexillology, Hassak extrapolates the underlying rhythms of the north African diaspora to present a new realisation of this enticing, pervasive pulse.
There’s some bittersweetness involved here when you spend a good portion of your life collecting these things on LP and CD and then someone’s compiled a playlist like this. When I had a radio show in the 70s, the station featured very good blues and gospel programming on Sundays which really rubbed off on me. That’s when the old blues and gospel collecting began. Sometime in the mid-oughts, I was in a favorite store in München (I met Evan Parker there once) where the entire 5th floor of a large department store was filled with CDs and some LPs. They were having a really great sale on Document CDs and I kept thinking about how I was going to get all of the ones I was buying home with me. It was a huge haul. It was something like a “3 for €10” sale.
There’s some bittersweetness involved here when you spend a good portion of your life collecting these things on LP and CD and then someone’s compiled a playlist like this. When I had a radio show in the 70s, the station featured very good blues and gospel programming on Sundays which really rubbed off on me. That’s when the old blues and gospel collecting began. Sometime in the mid-oughts, I was in a favorite store in München (I met Evan Parker there once) where the entire 5th floor of a large department store was filled with CDs and some LPs. They were having a really great sale on Document CDs and I kept thinking about how I was going to get all of the ones I was buying home with me. It was a huge haul. It was something like a “3 for €10” sale.
I used to see those Document cds in the Blues & Roots basement of Ray's Jazz and they were really expensive, a full £14.99 as I recall. Personally I used to pine for more cds in the Complete Chronological (artist name and year) jazz series or whatever it was called (they later appeared on Emusic and I bought a lot of Coleman Hawkins I recall) now lost to dead drives...
Comments
2014 Serpiente Dorada 2016 Siete Raíces
2021 Fiebre 2015 A Guide To The Birdsong Of South America
Emusic, Bandcamp The album that introduced me to them.
Bandcamp
2017 Salsoul Mastermix
🎧👂🔜🖤💗📛🎲🎰🎮🥇🚴🌫👂👂💘
by Stephen Weigel
2014 Nocturnes 2018 Shunter
2019 Driftmachine Plays Marien van Oers
Bandcamp
Dirty Three
1996 Horse Stories 1998 Ocean Songs
2000 Whatever You Love, You Are
The end music to many a good night
Honorary Terry Riley thread mention? Great stuff! Thanks.
2004 What A Beauty: Die Ursonate Und Andere Lautgedichte
UbuWeb
2007 Staying In 2010 En Fin Tid
2011 Sagara
An old eMusic purchase, I'd forgotten how much I liked it
Hassak’s debut album extends this idea over the course of 13 propulsive and complex tracks. ‘Seven Poets’ samples a group chant over birdsong and snappy hi-hats that evoke footwork’s stacked rhythms – encompassing the dancefloors of Chicago and the desert-scape of Berber song. The Chicago sound also leaves its mark on the bouncy Stampede Step with its shrill flute melody and growling bassline, and Aura samples the chants of the Zayane mountain community: chopping their circular incantations over rumbling sub-bass, the effect renders them as verse and a kind of crowd sound.
Instead of simply pasting decontextualised field recordings over bright electronics, Hassak integrates these folk elements into the mix and allows them to breathe. He incorporates the clatter of the bendir drum on the rollicking Aura, a smattering of hand claps over the house piano of Cercococcyx, and the shrill arpeggios of the taghanimt flute on the drum machine-heavy 40’ Feet. In this way, Hassak weaves tradition into his own interpretations of dance, allowing space for the acoustic to interact with the electronic, not remixing the former beyond the point of recognition (a common pitfall in this type of work). On Vexillology, Hassak extrapolates the underlying rhythms of the north African diaspora to present a new realisation of this enticing, pervasive pulse.
1981 Speak & Spell 1982 A Broken Frame
1984 Some Great Reward 1986 Black Celebration
2017 Spirit
1970 Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs 1994 Live At The Fillmore Oct 23,24 1970
I used to see those Document cds in the Blues & Roots basement of Ray's Jazz and they were really expensive, a full £14.99 as I recall. Personally I used to pine for more cds in the Complete Chronological (artist name and year) jazz series or whatever it was called (they later appeared on Emusic and I bought a lot of Coleman Hawkins I recall) now lost to dead drives...
1972 An Anthology 1969 The Allman Brothers Band
1970 Idlewild South 1971 The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East
1972 Eat A Peach