Thursday, May 21, 2026

Bab L' Bluz - Iwaiwa Funk


French-Moroccan power quartet Bab L' Bluz, have released the third track from their forthcoming album Swaken. This new track, entitled 'Iwaiwa Funk' is played on the electric mandole, sung in the higher-pitched vocal style found in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains and themed to remind us that life is short, resentment is futile and dance — whirling, hair-whipping dance — is a conduit to the soul.
Condemning those who cause suffering to others or are blinded by those harmful actions and their inevitable consequences, ‘Iwaiwa Funk’ underscores the importance of listening to distress calls and never underestimating others, whilst advocating for kindness, reflection on our actions and compassion. Life is fleeting…
Recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, written partly in Morocco – the birthplace of frontwoman Yousra Mansour — and mostly across a world tour that took the band from Adelaide, Barcelona and New York to Essaouira in Morocco, Lomé in Togo and Dougga in Tunisia. Mansour’s melismatic voice has never sounded so forceful, or the riffage from her electric awisha lute so mighty. Her bandmates Brice Bottin, Ibrahim Terkemani, Jérôme Bartolome (on everything from keyboards, flutes and electric guembri to drums, backing vocals and qraqeb castanets) interact with what might be telepathy, their playing skilled and tight.  From: https://realworldrecords.com/features/blogs/track-of-the-day-iwaiwa-funk-by-bab-l-bluz/