Moroccan desert blues band Daraa Tribes releases their new EP Torat Vol. 1. It is the band’s third EP and third release with label Coral Riff Music.

‘Torat’ means ‘tradition’ in Moroccan Arabic and reflects the ancestral, traditional music that not only influenced this new release, but can be heard through traditional percussion and vocal styles in each song on the EP.

Songs like ‘Bshara’ and ‘Lghram’ come directly from traditional Hassania, Amazigh, and Daraoua ancestral customs found throughout southern Morocco and across North Africa.

This reflection and representation of traditional music is met with an eclectic modern blues/rock style apparent on each track. This is a continuation of Daraa Tribes efforts on each of the band’s previous releases to innovate upon ancestral cultural traditions, using them as a foundation for their creative process.

The band simultaneously released a lyric video for the song ‘Bshara’, translated into both Hassania Arabic and English. This song tells the story of the Aarib tribe, nomadic in origin, and their historical relationship with their surrounding environments. Major themes include a cultural, social, and economic importance placed upon camels, music customs performed by the tribal youth, and greeting other tribal members traveling from Afar. These themes are not just common among nomadic Hassania culture historically in North Africa, but are still very much part of modern cultural life in the Sahara desert of Morocco.