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The North African nation of Morocco possesses a diverse music scene, where traditional and popular styles collide and collude. Sacred and secular concerns are omnipresent. Gutty strings and nasal, resonant singers wend their way through sweet-sour scales, hypnotic rhythms, and knife-sharp harmonies. A tinny taxi radio blares a new chaabi (pop) hit, a street-side bard bawls out a broadside, an all-female chorus accompanied by an all-male back-up band wanders from party to party, and a local TV station airs a concert by a classical Arab-Andalouse orchestra--all this while the minaret of every mosque in town simultaneously intones the Muslim call to prayer. It must have been a challenge to gather so many complex and constantly evolving styles onto a single CD, but as usual, the Rough Guide comes through with flying colors. The music has a fervent heat and a graceful rawness but also reveals a core of hard-won serenity.
--Christina Roden