Test mixes for a forthcoming sample library, showcasing my engineering and mixing skills
The track alternates between the raw drum recording and different mix palettes

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Time+Space DnB2 Mix Tests - Before And After

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Time+Space Dunce Mix Tests - Before And After

Gnawa is one of the more mystical forms of traditional Moroccan music, a blend of spiritual song and repetitive rhythms, increasing in intensity to produce a transcendent, or trance-like, state in the listener. To experience Gnawa up close and personal, as I have while recording & performing in Marrakech over the past few years, is a profound experience, emotionally and culturally (coming from a cold climate in more than one sense).
The name ‘Shalaba’ refers to the old Gnawa tribes, and the lyrics are about forgiveness, and form part of the Nagsha - the intro music to the Gnawa trance night. The piece is composed with field recordings from my time spent in Morocco, augmented by electronic instrumentation back in London.

Shalaba

Gnawas perform a complex liturgy, called lila or derdeba. The ceremony recreates the first sacrifice and the genesis of the universe by the evocation of the seven main manifestations of the divine demiurgic activity. It calls the seven saints and supernatural entities represented by seven colours, as a prismatic decomposition of the original light/energy. The derdeba is jointly animated by a maâlem (master musician) at the head of his troop and by moqadma or shuwafa (clairvoyante) who is in charge of the accessories and clothing necessary to the ritual.
I was fortunate enough to attend one of these rituals and the resulting field recordings became the basis of this track.

Lila

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