Group Doueh
Sublime Frequencies Group Doueh :
Guitar Music from the Western Sahara (WS,pub.2006)****°
Alan Bishop and his label, Sublime Frequencies are still one of the few labels to dig into other countries to look for obscurities which aren’t too different from what western people like in some too-left-alone countries from proper and prosper interaction. Although the label started with a more fragmentary achieved interest, more and more certain names and specific facts starts to take shape. The story on this album reminds me of an occasion where I heard a tape playing in a Moroccan snack bar in Antwerp. The guitarist who was playing did similar things comparable to for instance early 70s Erkin Koray, but the guy who worked there said it was just a compilation tape and that he didn’t know, and I think he was not really willing to tell me more. Alan in his turn, heard a track on Moroccan radio. It was difficult for him to trace its origin. People called it Sahrawi music, music from the Western Sahara. After some research by Hisham Mayet from the label he was directed to a house where they would find more info, and where happened to live the musician they were looking for. He is called Doueh. His music was inspired by a Mauritian musician called Yassin Oueld Enana, and by known Western rock classics. He also learned from local traditions and played at first with a self-built guitar, until in 1981 started his group ‘Group Doueh’, where he played guitar and tinidit, a Mauritian stringed instrument, with his wifeHalima on vocals and on ‘tbal’ (a local percussion instrument), with one more vocalist called Bashiri.Because local musicians began to appear more often on Moroccan television, he added keyboards to his group, played by his son, Jamai. Officially, he recorded just one home taped recording. The songs are poetry in local language. His guitar playing is a renewal of the tradition with some western influence. This album is material from his home-recorded archives, and is full of surprises.
The first two tracks, but especially the first track, “Eid for Dakhla” is slightly overloaded and gives a primitive garage-rock effect, while using a seemingly wa-wa effect on the electric guitar. You can definitely also notice crossover qualities to a local folk influence, with the backing vocals accompaniment (in duet, child/female?, I think are also typical for African music with a more direct importance for the commu
nity). The second track is played faster and could also be recognised as being from Africa, although it is very unusual to hear such rhythmical tunes being played on an electric guitar (with some backing vocals and bits of rambling percussion), with such arpeggio’s.
At times you could think that Doueh plays techniques on the guitar meant for different instruments, or learned from the way in which certain other African instruments are being played.
The third song, “Tirara” is better recorded, and you hear the guitar clearer, with some bass percussion and some clapping percussion, with similar backing vocals.
The fourth track “Fagu” is again very different, although very fitting, where Doueh plays his guitar (or is it the electrified ‘tinidit’?) like a repetitive drone instrument, while also the singing is in a different style. This particular singing style is somewhat comparable, -for what I’ve heard before-, with the “Ethiopian” style, with variations that sounds very hypnotic, and that might also recall certain Indian (??) singing styles, and which is very beautiful to hear.
Also on the first track of side B, “Dun Dan” the guitar and singing is similar, but then there is added a more African, slightly funky feeling, with some bass, background duo vocals (child-like sounds), with more “African percussion”.
One of the most “African” in sound songs have something like clapping rhythms, with directions where you could easily sing along if you were a bit used to do that.
Next song seems to be sung by his son (?). There are still more surprises to expect, because the last few tracks focus even more on the solo guitar playing, with an almost rocking attention to the guitar, like on “Sabah Lala”.
The Last track, “Cheyla Ya Haiuune” sounds one step closer to western styles, because it is more directed to the song, which is, not pushed from rhythmical tunes, but following the melody line more, and then improvising on it. It is the only track that I think is with some keyboards and additional keyboard rhythms further on background.
With this album the label seem to have uncovered a great discovery. For me, it is perhaps the most interesting record to date from the label. Perhaps that’s why it was released on LP for the first time, to be preserved best for the future. In all my research, and while looking through much from what is released and coming from Africa -with various rare exceptions (like with the 70s Ethiopian releases)-, I often was rather disappointed seeing the repetition of the same kind of sound with every release on the market from what became known as the “typical African” sound. Now, for me, this is more the kind of really creative, personal and “progressive” releases that I hoped and expected from Africa, to be promoted more often. (And since no one does yet, I will try to collect these items and compile them into this separate page to show the difference).
This is a limited, one time pressing, of a 1000, with a folded cover, LPs on thick vinyl, and with additional liner notes and photographs. Especially recommended to those who already found the Ethiopian series on Buddha a welcome surprise.
Sublime Frequencies Group Doueh : Treeg Salam (WS,rec.1989-1996,pub.2009)***°°
This is another choice from the same tape archives of Group Doueh, good for a second LP/CD, which seems to be sold out almost immediately at source (some remaining copies are still distributed by Forced Exposure). The five tracks are very different in nature and also have different recording qualities. Most tracks have elements like an intro in spoken word while the band starts playing already, some African call/responses, or some lead vocalist with background female choir or a second voice (a boy singing wildly on the third track) on hypnotic rhythms, with excessive effects of the specific hypnotic guitar playing of patterns and a certain distortion of wahwah effects increasing the psychedelic effect of it, and rhythms that are pushed by keyboard effects in the background and hand claps. The distortion of the electric guitar or tinidit (?) on the second track is overloading and primitive as if coming from a tin box amplifier, the effect is still special and the public is wild, girls are screaming. The third track I guess is the most hypnotic one and could have lasted for 20 minutes if you asked me. But it is the last track which goes over 20 minutes, developing more slowly, with the electric guitar developing patterns like ripples in water, sounding like a meditation on a religious level, directing top musical areas like Pakistani Sufi music for instance. Also the singing is more Arabesque (like Ethiopian style). Another extremely interesting album, which due to the different nature of the five chosen tracks need a few listens and concentrations on each individual choice for optimal appreciation.
Sublime Frequencies Group Doueh : Zayna Jumma (WS,2011)****
I didn’t expect to be surprised again by another release of Group Doueh, the fourth one on record so far (I missed the previous one) but I was. This started already with the first track, with loudly recorded but thus very effective rocking guitars with vocals and backing vocalists. Lead guitar and vocals, backing vocals and jangling acoustic guitars are enriched with electric bass and different drum rhythms with groove and hypnotic repetition. The second track uses wahwah electric fuzz guitars, some background organ and a lead boy singing, with an effect to create very Afro desert garage-psych with hypnotic mind exalting effect. This track is not very well recorded or mixed, but the sound has been optimized to make it work. This sort of approach continues with a different song on the next track. The track after this is from a slower haze, with an organ drone melody repetition mixed with electric bass, dominating handclaps and Arab lead singing. On the fifth track desert whirlies like djins or sand storms play over the electrified guitar, on a monotone sweeping up rhythm and group response singing, speeding up at times expressing inner tensions and heat. The 6th and also the 7th track has a more relaxed rhythm on percussion, we hear lead singing with group responses and more whirling wahwah-alike effects on the guitar. The 8th track is again different for we hear some of the rhythms taken over by what sounds like a cheap synthesizer with rhythm box overloaded by an acoustic guitar, with an effect that surprisingly works with its own power and rhythmic attraction. Here we also have here and there some lililili-screaming women in the background. After this track it suddenly is all over. You have the impression you experienced something new, leaving you with somewhat confusion on the empty spot it leaves behind in the end.
The style, which can be heard on the album, comes forth from the mixture of music from different origins and regions. First we recognise the tribal Saharan music from the Western Sahara and Morroco, some instrumental forms from Mauritanian origin, and Gnawa music. Instruments used are the tinidit, a three-stringed lute traditionally played with a plectrum, the ardin, a harp played mostly by women with 12 to 14 strings, a western Korg synth, a drum-kit and of course the Touareg desert blues inspired electric guitar.
