Musical Brotherhoods of The Trans Saharan Highway

Marrakech has been a market and meeting place on the Saharan trade routes for centuries. This constant churn of commerce and culture is the focus of this fantastic disc. Director Hisham Mayet drops some serious science on the viewer early on, contrasting the bustling, vital marketplace to (our) "world where the information technology juggernaut is homogenising and impoverishing our lives, confining us in the remote control darkness of privacy.” And with that begins 60 minutes of some of the finest string generated music you’re ever going to hear, and a tribute to making music in public spaces. There’s some master class material here for those who are already acquainted with the three-string guimbri or sentir. Scenes with phased electric banjo are… need I say more? The lantern and fire-lit night time settings are effortlessly psychedelic, with groups of drummers engaged in an unending rhythmic conversation while smoke billows all around.