The album Swaken by Moroccan/French band Bab L’ Bluz has claimed the number one position on the Transglobal World Music Chart for the month of June 2024.
Swaken features eleven tracks that mix the kinetic energy of psychedelic blues, funk, and rock with the trance-inducing rhythms of northern Africa’s Maghreb, including Gnawa, Amazigh, Hassani, and Huara music. Recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, and partly written in Morocco, frontwoman Yousra Mansour’s birthplace, the album’s creation spanned a world tour. Mansour’s powerful melismatic voice, paired with her electric awisha lute, is complemented by bandmates Brice Bottin, Ibrahim Terkemani, and Jérôme Bartolome.
The album’s warm analog sound pays homage to 1970s rock icons like Led Zeppelin while drawing influence from Morocco’s Nass El Ghiwane. The album, co-produced by Bottin and Katie May, embodies the band’s growth and evolving sound, adapted for festival crowds with heavier, rockier elements. Primarily sung in Darija, the Moroccan-Arabic dialect of the Nayda movement, Mansour addresses issues such as Moroccan inheritance laws, gender wage disparities, and mental health, advocating for unity, tolerance, and kindness in a fragile world.
Transglobal World Music Chart, June 2024
- Bab L’ Bluz – Swaken – Real World
- Ali Doğan Gönültaş – Keyeyî – Mapamundi Música
- Sam Lee – Songdreaming – Cooking Vinyl
- Aynur – Rabe – Dreyer Gaido
- Asmaa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou – L’Bnat – Ajabu!
- Aziza Brahim – Mawja – Glitterbeat
- Kiran Ahluwalia – Comfort Food – Six Degrees
- Avalanche Kaito – Talitakum – Glitterbeat
- Maria Mazzotta – Onde – Zero Nove Nove
- Ana Lua Caiano – Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado – Glitterbeat
- Huun-Huur-Tu, Carmen Rizzo & Dhani Harrison – Dreamers in the Field – Dark Horse / BMG
- Jembaa Groove – Ye Ankasa | We Ourselves – Agogo
- Olcay Bayir – Tu Gulî – ARC Music
- V.A. – Congo Funk! Sound Madness from the Shores of the Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa / Brazzaville 1969-1982) – Analog Africa
- Quintet Bumbac – Héritages – Collectif Çok Malko
- Tarwa N-Tiniri – Akal – Atty
- Lina – Fado Camões – Galileo Music Communication
- Sahra Halgan – Hiddo Dhawr – Danaya Music
- Marjan Vahdat – The Eagle of My Heart – Kirkelig Kulturverksted
- Céu – Novela – Urban Jungle / ONErpm
- Besh o droM – Hova Lesz a Séta? – Fonó
- Halva – Musafir – Zephyrus
- Vedan Kolod – Birds – CPL-Music / CPL-Musicgroup
- Dele Sosimi & The Estuary 21 – The Confluence – Wah Wah 45s
- Adama Yalomba – Tanou – Remote / Studio Mali
- Les Amazones d’Afrique – Musow Dance – Real World
- Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El Din – Ousoul – Buda Musique
- Newen Afrobeat – Grietas – Lichens Family
- Alxaraf – Exodus – Digital Dos
- Nancy Vieira – Gente – Galileo Music Communication
- Tiken Jah Fakoly – Acoustic – Chapter Two
- Altan – Donegal – Compass
- Maliheh Moradi & Ehsan Matoori – Our Sorrow – ARC Music
- Atanda – Ọ̀mọ̀nílẹ̀, Son of the Soil – One World
- Lass – Passeport – Chapter Two
- Yīn Yīn – Mount Matsu – Glitterbeat
- Za! & Perrate – Jolifanto – Lovemonk
- Abdallah Oumbadougou – Amghar: The Godfather of Tuareg Music Vol. 1 – Petaluma
- Les Frères Timal – Sè Sa Menm – Aztec Musique
- Suzumeno Tears – Sparrow’s Arrows Fly so High – Doyasa!
More about the Transglobal World Music Chart: www.transglobalwmc.com
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central