Innov Gnawa: El Ghaba

Innov Gnawa’s new seven-minute single “El Ghaba” emphasizes the group’s North African roots. Hailing from Morocco, now based in NYC, the band (Ma’alem Hassan Ben Jaafer, Amino Belyamani and Ahmed Jeriouda) focuses on a genre known as Gnawa (sometimes called “Sufi Blues”), qraqeb-based music with vocal “prayers invoking saints and spirits for freedom and liberation.” Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth produced the group’s forthcoming album, Lila, …

L’Rain: Two Face

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist L’Rain (aka Taja Cheek) will follow her eponymous 2017 album with Fatigue this June. From the album comes “Two Face,” a complex collage of sounds that’s simultaneously chaotic and perfectly polished. The swirling song employs elements of R&B and jazz, with digital effects, crisp percussion and haunting vocals. The Brooklyn-based artist says, “This is a song about a falling out with a …

Floating Points: Movement 1

Promises by Floating Points (aka Sam Shepherd), Pharaoh Sanders and The London Symphony Orchestra is a nine-movement jazz piece released on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop record label. Shepherd composed the work, tapped 80-year-old saxophonist Sanders for his parts and then passed it to The London Symphony Orchestra, who eventually recorded the album audiences are enjoying now. American visual artist Julie Mehretu contributed the album’s cover …