Group Doueh - Treeg Salaam LP

Group Doueh “Treeg Salaam” (Sublime Frequencies) Follow up to Group Doueh’s fantastic first Sublime Frequencies album, & these songs were taken from the same source as that album – “Group Doueh’s personal cassette archives,” which were recorded between ’89 & ’96. The music runs in the same idiosyncratic soundworld – amazing, cutting electric guitar - sometimes heavily flanged, sometimes run through an envelope filter & or wah pedal - over traditional rhythms, call & response vocals, somehow both modern/western-informed, & deeply traditional at the same time. The second track “Ragsa Jaguar” seems to have been recorded live at some sort of wild revelry, a large growd of women screaming as if at some sort of rally, with the band riding an ecstatic wave over the top. “Beatte Harab” feels like a psychedelic take off of “Baba O’Rielly.” There are so many moments where this record feels like the Sun City Girls in their most ecstatic rock based mode I won’t even mention it. Four modest-length tracks on side one, a single extended, hyper-psychedelic raga-esque drone epic on side two which is anomalous to the other material, but deeply transportive. The only reason this is any less of a revelation than the first album, is that the first album was first - & of course those records long gone, & this will be likewise gone pretty quick, I’d guess. Heavy vinyl, gatefold sleeve, limited ed.