Devotional music is always so awkward to write about, and this collection of Gnawa music is no exception. And for why? Well, it’s never entirely clear what folk mean by devotional music, and that gets less clear the less information there is available about a group. And the Gnawa, well, they’re apparently the descendants of enslaved folk brought to Morrocco. What kind of devotional are we talking — funerary? Piss-up? Is this yom kippur or purim?
Well, I could have done more research; but I did not. So here we are. I’m mostly going to have to go on my own half-baked ideas of vibe.
Part of the problem I’m getting at above is that I do miss the days where an “ethnographic” recording, for all the pissy racism implied in that term, would have some overbearing essay on the sleeve explaining the music theory and the context of the music. There’s plenty to read out there on the Gnawa people, and it is remiss of me not to look further into that, but it’d be nice if the general practice with these records was to chuck a bunch of context at the listener at the same time.
Anyway. What is Gnawa devotional music? Having listened to this, I’m not really any closer to knowing. Which is a good thing — I can’t discern that this record is particularly one or another form.
What seems to be common is that two or more instruments follow, very closely, the same rhythmic pattern, except when they don’t. Whether that’s on a set cycle or improvisatory isn’t clear, but what is clear here is that when Gnawa are tight they are very tight; “Baniya” has all the melodic instruments largely in absolute unison, and the handclaps likewise in the pocket. When they are not in unison, there is some fearsome cycles of off-rhythms — a long way away from the kind of syncopation you might see in most jazz, but still tethered closely to whatever the anchor is that keeps these tracks held together.
-Kev Nickells-
