Moroccan Tape Stash: Mahmoud Gania

This post is a sequel to one of the earliest posts on Moroccan Tape Stash back in 2011. That post shared the tape Voix de Casablanca VDC 53, one of the wildest tapes in the Stash – raucous drum kit rolicking and
punctuating along with in-your-face breakneck qarqabas, and non-stop thumping
guinbri. 

Today I’m sharing VDC 51, which duplicates a fair amount of what’s on VDC 53. Of its six tracks, only 3 do not appear completely or partially on VDC 53. These 3 new tracks (A1, B3, and B4) do not feature the outlandish drummer, but from the sound of the mix and the musicians, they sound like they come from the same recording session. Of the 3 overlapping crazy drummer tracks, 2 contain shorter versions of things on VDC 53 (A2 and B1), while one contains extended material not found on VDC 53 (B2).

So in addition to sharing the full version of VDC 51, I’m also sharing an EXPANDED EDITION of VDC 53, incorporating 4 additional glorious minutes of insane drum kit mayhem not featured on the original tape. I was going to call it The Complete Warren Beatty Sessions since, as I noted before, the gentleman pictured on the j-card, who we assume to be the drummer, does bear a resemblance to the actor. However, one holds out hope that there is a VDC 52 cassette out there
somewhere that may contain even more drum madness from this session.

VDC 51 shell

Discographic Questions: The two albums VDC 51 and VDC 53 are clearly related – the
cassette company is of course the same, the photos show Mâalem Mahmoud in the
same clothes at the same studio, and the music on the two tapes appears to come from the same session. However, I do have questions. The cassette shells for both
tapes do not read Voix de Casablanca, but rather Fassiphone. The track names listed on each j-card are completely different from the songs featured on each cassette. And the singing doesn’t really sound to me like Mâalem Mahmoud. So I have wondered whether in fact these cassettes are matched with the correct j-cards. If it were just one cassette, it would be plausible that the wrong tape ended up in the wrong jewel box at the tape shop one day. However, for the same error to happen to 2 different, clearly related tapes, is a bit much to believe.

So the questions remain: Is this really Mahmoud Gania? Are these tapes really meant to accompany these j-cards? If so, why are the track names wrong? Who is the funky drummer and where can I hear more of him? Maybe we’ll learn more, maybe not. At any rate, I hope you enjoy these, and I wish you all a good Ramadan coming up.

L-Gnawi Mahmoud Gania لڴناوي محمود ڴنيا
Voix De Casablanca cassette VDC 51 صوت البيضاء

A1) Allahuma Selliw 3la Nbi Ou S7abu Lillah
       Sala 3lik Ya Nabi
       Marrakchia a Lalla
       Aicha ou Mali
       Moulay Atferrej 3lia
       Salla 3lih
       Malika
A2) Lalla Mira
       Moulati Fatma
       Soussi
       Malika
       Moulay Abdellah Cherif
B1) Salbani ‘Awju Koman Aliya
B2) Galuli Toubi
       Wali Moulay Driss
       Tijania
B3) Allah A Baba Mimoun
B4) Mwi A Mwi Wach Qdaw Ila Berhu Bia
       Malika