Unity

A Gnawa singer and master of the three-stringed sintir lute, Hassan Hakmoun made his name more than 20 years ago with the album Trance, which was released and recorded at Real World Studios. Unity is Hakmoun's first release in a dozen years and finds him continuing his mission to fuse the hypnotic ancient rhythms of Gnawa trance with a contemporary rock sensibility.

Recorded in just three days, the spontaneous feel creates a wild, feral quality. His electrified sintir slashes through the slide-guitar and wailing harmonica of the opener ‘Zidokan’, which boasts a heavy rock riff that roars with the same sledgehammer ferocity as Rachid Taha's unforgettable ‘Barra Barra’.

The fiery grooves don’t let up on ‘Hamadiyi’, ‘Dima Dima’ and ‘Ohio’ (not the Neil Young song, by the way) before the approach changes slightly on the more trad-sounding ‘Boudarbalayi’, with its call-and-response vocals. Then it's back to the kick-ass trance roar on ‘Amarmoussoi’ and ‘Moulay Ahmed’, before winding up with a couple of percussion-heavy pop remixes, one of them by former Ex-Centric Sound System man Yossi Fine, who co-produced the album.

The energy on Unity is relentless and ultimately rather exhausting. This is great stuff from Hassan Hakmoun, but perhaps it is music best sampled in small doses.