Chaabi music grew from Andalusian origin and flourished in the Kasbah of the Algerian capital city where it was formalised in the 1940s at the Conservatoire D’Algiers by Abdel’s father, Hadj El Anka. It was here that the El Gusto Orchestra formed and later recorded this remarkable album.

In recent years, the future of Chaabi music has looked uncertain as many of the Jewish and Muslim musicians bonds have fractured from decades of political and religious struggle. All of the thirty one local musicians who assembled together at the request of filmmaker Safinez Bousba — whose film El Gusto: The Good Mood is out next year — are captured on record in exuberant form.

The most noticeable thing about this recording is its range of dynamics. ‘Fatouma’ broods along mischievously for some while, before exploding into a carnival of tango infused fervour; ‘Mal Djifni’ grows from fragmented melodies, beautifully warbled by an unearthly vocal delivery, into a texture so thick that it unselfconsciously cascades towards you as a river nearly tripping over itself endearingly in its urgency and assuredness.

The Ûd and vocal duet ‘Min Yaati Kalbou Lil Melah’ works largely because of its eloquent simplicity of texture in comparison to the polyphonic kaleidoscope of sounds which swirls around the speakers throughout the rest of this heady record.

Across the album, ûds, guitars, violins, frame drums, banjos and piano’s caress and extol the impassioned vocals which are delivered coolly and directly to give a rich yet grainy sound which Damon Albarn, one of the producrs, describes as like an “uncut diamond”. A very accessible and credible document of a spectacular culture and event which deserves to be heard.