The concept of an excuse being good obviously doesn’t refer to its quality as entertainment, hence the disdain that’s directed at the whole hilarious dog and homework thing. So I’ll skip over the reasons for the three or four weeks without new songs, and just get stuck in.
Ikram Boukoum is a female artist form Morocco who lives in Barcelona and an online profile lists her style as Future Club/Gqom/Reggaeton/Tarratxo/Bass Music. Personally, I want to throw in Electro too mainly ‘cos I want to include her in my new playlist Electro Ladyloud, which is a salute to my personal favourite trend in 2021, such a huge change since 1999, the year that Andrea Parker released an album on Mo’ Wax called Kiss My ‘Arp, and basically shook the world, as nobody had ever realised that women could do clattering rhythms and gut busting bass. Or maybe it was just me who was struck like that, but I don’t think so.
The Game throws in some mad vocal business too, with English and her native Amazigh fighting it out for attention on top of the beats. Spanish pops up in other tracks, or maybe it’s Catalan too/instead. According to her website, Boukoum’s club utopia is a polyphonic place where many voices are represented at the same time. A tweak of the translation here would give us many voices represented all at once, which wouldn’t be bad way to sum up the colliding quality that her music throws out. Everything hinting at conflicts or tensions, strands that need untangling, making hair a metaphor, or an example of simple things with cultural weight.
There are 5 tracks on the new EP, Ha-bb5, with The Game standing out as the most direct beat-wise, not that the others offer much chance to sit back. Henna, for example, has a gripping simple bass riff adorned with elaborate vocal traces, occasionally doubled up, outlining vertiginous spaces in between.
THIS WEEK
Ikram Bouloum – The Game
209 views since 28th May Weekly Average Views – 244
EXTRAS
Ikram Bouloum – Henna
Ikram Bouloum – Nhara
Ikram Bouloum - Ineia