Fadoul - Al Zman Saib (2015) [Hi-Res]

Blazing funk and psych covers and originals from ’60s/’70s Casablanca, sung in Arabic. First ever issue outside of Morocco. Includes 4-panel booklet of liner notes, photos and lyrics plus download code

Habibi Funk pull out a straight winner from the dustiest deadstock racks of a back street in Casablanca! The result of three years research, Fadoul’s debut album Al Zman Saib takes flight as he possibly never imagined it would…

Frontman of a local funk band with a sparky, punkish thrust, Fadoul (4.3.1942 - 14.8.1991) was posthumously discovered via Jannis Stürtz’ lucky 7” find in 2012 - Fadoul’s cover of Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag by James Brown - which prompted a three year search to uncover its background and history, including countless taxi trips and phone calls, before Stürtz found his residence in central Casablanca and was able to sit down with his estranged family and find out about the record you’re looking at and listening to.

Turns out Fadoul had lived in Paris, where he soaked up the music of James Brown, Free and the other American bands he covers inside this album with such raw verve and punkish grit. He’d also composed a jingle for an orange juice advert on TV and was father to two children before he passed away in 1991 at the age of 50.

What remains of his musical legacy, thanks to Habibi Funk, is now available in a way that Fadoul may never have imagined - stacking up eight of his blazing crowd-pleasers sensitively transferred and remastered to feel the full might of his howl and his backing group’s raw clang.