Abdul & The Gang in front of a wall of amps lifting off the ground under the force of its own funk. A coppery funk of which only they knew the precise dosages, the quantities of Oriental spices to inject, the measure of gnawa rhythms, the content of percussion, the balance between pure hedonism and the message that passes while the public dances. Deep in the groove, like a trance that slowly releases its power, a heritage from the desert.
Coming from the Moroccan desert, the smell of the souk impregnated in their sandy clothes, Abdul & The Gang unleash irrepressible Beldi rhythms and unbreathable Funk grooves. The Roland E-40 Oriental synthesizer and its 1/4 tone as a weapon of choice, it is with an injunction to dance that the Gang steals the dance-floor.
Gnawa roots, traditional percussion mixed with the electronics of the machines, Abdul & The Gang has moved from fake villains on to real good guys, its new and luminous KASBATEK sign is shaking the public, imposing the gwana trance on everyone. Conveyed by grooves of radical funk, Beldi rhythms have established themselves as the artistic directors of this contraband music that everyone seemed to be waiting for.
But, let's put the artist in context, Abou Ben Salem (aka Abdul) is from Boudnib, a small village in Morocco located in the Ksar souk of Er Rachidia. He immersed himself very early in the Moroccan Gnawa tribes of Merzouga but also the Algerian and Mauritanian tribes. After having scoured the scene for years, notably with the band Babeloued Sound, this notorious rhythmic trafficker will cross paths one by one with the future members of the Gang. Together, they concoct a new sound that borrows from the Orient, the Maghreb, Chaabi melodies and Gnawa rhythms, and confronts them with the groove and arrangements of Funk or Afrobeat. From this mix of genres was born the Gnawa Funk which subsequently gave birth to Kasbatek.