Master Musicians of Jajouka

The Master Musicians of Jajouka entered the international spotlight from the unlikely environs of Morocco when they jammed with the late Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, who thereafter released the venerated 1971 album Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Jajouka. The group finally embarked on their first U.S. tour in 1996, garnering press accolades along the way. This latest Jajouka release features the producing, drumming, and DJ skills of the acclaimed Talvin Singh. With Singh's assistance, Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians cleverly mix up organic originals (recorded in the field) with electronica- influenced collaborations (done in the studio), spotlighting both their folkloric history and their brave new future. On several cuts, acoustic instruments such as oboe-like ghaitas, tablas, flute, and conch shell sympathetically share sonic space with edgy rhythm programming, electric bass, and sparingly used keyboards and record scratching. From a production standpoint, the field recordings sound thin compared with their grooving, beefed-up studio counterparts, which are fresher in their ethno-techno and ethno- ambient qualities. That said, the acoustic tracks are historically important to a familial group whose torchbearers are dwindling. Even so, the inclusion of a repetitive 10-minute track of drums and ghaitas is no easy initiation and would have worked better near the album's end rather than as its second cut. Given the mesmerizing vibe that runs through this music, these compositions tend to be circular in nature, but the whole point is to blissfully trance out, and Singh's input generally keeps the album engaging and gives it a strong crossover potential to a hipper, younger audience. Techno fans should dig the nine-minute dance remix at the end. --Bryan Reesman