Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street:
"when I think about my favorite recordings of Gnawan music they are invariably made by men, which makes the all-female Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou all the more important. I don’t know if this group trumpets its gender, but its activity flies in the face of patriarchal convention. The group doesn’t toy with tradition too much, but why fuck with something that’s maintained its beauty and power for so many centuries. The music thrives on repetitious grooves, which, rather than growing tedious as they cycle endlessly, take on a powerful strain of hypnosis, building from a simmer and intensifying into an irresistible trance, as Hamzaoui’s voice grows more insistent and louder, with her bandmates relentlessly responding and pushing the groove harder."