While this Moroccan-French band has made it a mission to introduce traditional instrumentation to the world, you'll likely agree with their self-characterization as a rock band. Drawing on their North African roots of Gnawa and meshing them seamlessly with African blues and the Western influences, this is hardly a band couched in a traditional sound. While respecting and presenting the history of the music they draw from, the trio takes North African instruments awicha and gimbri in directions previously unseen. Unafraid to transition to more traditional compositions amidst their ’70s funk and ’60s psych, and rock explorations, these turns are coloured with unlikely sounds. The occasional nod to thumping electro beats results in hypnotizing digressions worthy of the nomadic artists of the California desert who spend their time composing hallucinatory soundscapes under the Milky Way after staking their place in Joshua Tree. Bab L’ Bluz offer not just a sonic bridge between genres but an overwhelming intersection of off ramps, turn lanes and open roads.

— Derek McEwen