This beautifully packaged gatefold LP (180 grams for you nerds who give a shit) is an impressive document of swirling whervish dust devil wahbubble Strat accompanied by pelvic-thumping rhythms and accentuating keys, topped off by often lo-fi vocals that feature brain rippling vibratos—if only I could understand what was being said.

Struggling with new idioms is never easy…and not knowing the words-- impossible. The one-sheet goes to great lengths to employ unfortunate puns associated with Arabic cultures: “shock and awe,” “shrapnel,” and while I can’t say for sure that the words don’t deal with those subjects, I do know that the album’s title translates into “Streets of Peace.” I have no idea if there is irony in play on either count, so I can’t really comment on these things with any authority. The description that Group Doueh is “trance inducing” is no mistake though.

The album is compiled by Hisham Mayet from cassette archives of the band and the fidelity, or lack thereof, shows; not that it matters much, because the playing is clear. Still, it would be cool to hear the band get into a studio simply to clarify the mastery of guitar, the centerpiece of these recordings, because it is amazing.

The virtuoso playing of Salmou Baamar intimates circularly infinite, almost mandala-like constructions around which the phased-out picking orbits strong and pronounced drumming. The two sides of the LP are different, as well. The first is cut up into shorter numbers that serve as almost a warm-up for the flipside, a single-track journey into the cosmos called “Tazit Kalifa” which rivals any traditional, blues-based psych guitarist for out playing.

It would be unfair, though, to highlight only the strings on the instrument. The previously mentioned vocals add so much to the music, as does (I imagine) the entire live show. 9/10 -- P. Somniferum (8 July, 2009)