Electric Jalaba

Immersive Melancholy

The deep sound of the guembri works like a heartbeat. It warms you and creates the sense of a completely safe environment. Around that sound, the British sextet Electric Jalaba composes extended numbers that are sometimes pretty provocative, sometimes finely melancholic, yet always compelling. The interplay between the six is extremely tight, but comparison with a well-oiled machine miss the mark. Because of that beating heart. Because of the generous levels of energy generated live on stage.

A warm bath 

Even though singer and guembri player Simo Lagnawi, with his penetrating voice, striking attire and vocals, is the unmistakeable figurehead, Electric Jalaba is a real band that works in brotherly fashion – as you’d expect with four brothers in the band! – towards an intense trance. Nothing distracts. Calmly yet steadily, step by step, you become entranced, your feet start to move to the groove of the drums, percussion and bass, you start to rock to snappy guitar riffs, and you’re carried away by all those inventive and undefinable sounds interspersed throughout. Music that feels like a warm bath thanks to that heartbeat.       

Line-up

Simo Lagnawi – guembri, krakeb, vocals

Henry Keen – guitar, vocals

Nathaniel Keen – keyboards, vocals

Barnaby Keen – krakeb, vocals

Olly Keen - bass, vocals

Stewart Hughes - Drums