Album Review: Bab L’Bluz - Nayda! (2020)

Craig Stephen takes a Real World trip and traverses a few continents for us:

Nayda! has been crafted by a trans-metropolitan act which mines the sounds of the Maghreb while holding the other ear to the west, in other words a magical mish-mash of influences and cultures.

The title refers to the transition from autocracy to a more liberal society at the turn of the century. It is a youth movement incorporating rappers, rockers, and jazzers and expanding to the nation’s minorities, such as the Berbers and the Gnawa. And while nayda can mean to party, it is also a reference to an intellectual awakening.

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Yousra Mansour is steeped in the Gnawa tradition, but grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Michael Jackson. The band’s name means "gateway to the blues”, but the reference is to African blues rather than its more modern American version. Mansour’s role in the band is in a way pioneering as Gnawa music is traditionally a male-dominated domain.

Bab L’Bluz is made by Brice Bottin (guitar, guembri and percussions), Jérôme Bartolome (percussion, flute), and percussionist Hafid Zouaoui who met up at a music festival in Marrakesh. Mansour also plays guembri, awisha and percussion on the album. While the music and songs come from Morocco (and nearby Mauritania), the recording took place in Lyon, southern France.

As mentioned, Nayda! the album (which has been released by Real World) has an ear to the west and early rock, but to the untrained ear it is a beguiling listen: the vocal range and the unusual instruments – such as the guembri and the awisha – combine to riveting yet confusing effect.

An introduction to Nayda! is made simpler by a brief introduction to the songs and a translation of the Arabic lyrics into English in the booklet that accompanies it. ‘Ila Mata’ was inspired by the Tunisian poet Anis Shoshan, and is a call to search for what can unite us instead of going towards everything that divides us. “Until when will ignorance rule?/ How will the injustice last? Until when are we forced to remain silent?/ Until when will violence will be glorified,” asks Mansour pertinently.

‘Africa Manayo’ laments the centuries-old plundering of the continent’s resources by the West, leading to exploited workers, a depleted soil, and mass poverty. “They’re watching our children dying/ While our tears are watering the floor.” Contrarily, ‘El Watane’ celebrates the richness of Africa while holding out hope that poverty and slavery might be eradicated.

There are also a number of songs that focus on love, life and African people, such as ‘Yemma’, a tribute to all mothers, and the love song ‘Oudelali’.

There’s a solid ground of influences on here, and no more so than on songs such as the anti-corruption anthem ‘Gwana Beat’ (“Who tells the story of the citizens’ pain/ And the story of the crooks who destroyed this country?”), which is the kind of song Robert Plant has been striving to write for decades. Or there’s ‘El Gamra’, played at full-throttle throughout which is deceptive as it’s a song about the moon and is a festive song praising her restorative powers.

(Oi! … you can’t say that about Robert Plant - Hippy Ed)

Album Review: Sounds Like Winter – Fight the Stairs (2021)

Fight the Stairs is full-length album number three for Sydney-based four piece Sounds Like Winter, following on from Initiate (2016), and Sticks and Stones (2017). There was also a collaborative three-way split release with Melbourne’s Ikon, and Wellington-based post-punkers Disjecta Membra a few years back, which coincided with a short local tour. A release that got a fair bit of ear time at the everythingsgonegreen manor.

And despite having read a few profiles or features on Sounds Like Winter in the past which reference the likes of Joy Division and compatriots the Birthday Party as obvious markers for the band’s sound, I’d like to throw a couple more of my own into the mix … Sounds Like Winter sound a lot like Magazine, or perhaps even an early incarnation of Psychedelic Furs (less so).

I think I hear a little more Howard Devoto or Richard Butler in Ant Banister’s lead vocal than I do Ian Curtis, but there’s no question those Joy Division comparisons are valid when it comes to the rest of the band’s formula. This is post-punk of a distinctly 80s bent, and while it does sit at the darker end of that spectrum, it’s not so dark that it doesn’t contain the odd shaft of light peeking through the gloom. Not unlike Sydney in winter.

There’s no singular theme behind the lyrics found on Fight the Stairs, other than perhaps post-punk perennials like “the human condition and all of its many flaws” or “contempt for much of what modern life throws at us”, the song writing is strong across all ten tracks and there’s a nice pace through the album when listening to it in one sitting from start to finish. There’s a balance of fast and slower tracks, carefully arranged so as to never become too weighty or overwhelming - which is something I often struggle with when it comes to albums within this genre.

Musically, it’s an unrepentantly retro affair; compact, tight, and polished, but not to the point that there’s no 21^st century grit left in the mix. There’s no obvious filler over the course of its 45 minute runtime, with highlights including ‘The Monsters’, ‘No Interest’, and ‘He Was Gone’. 

Bandcamp link here.