POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Hakmoun: The Mix Hasn’t Jelled

The young Moroccan singer Hassan Hakmoun has lived in New York since 1987, where he has been mixing funk and rock elements into the trance music of Morocco’s Gnawa musicians. But the first set of his sold-out appearance at LunaPark on Saturday with his seven-piece band Zahar and guest percussionist Adam Rudolph showed the old world and new world elements haven’t fully jelled.

The trance element was apparent in two traditional songs featuring the hollow thunk of the sintir --a three-string bass-like instrument--accompanied by multiple percussion that echoed and prodded shifts in dynamics and tempo. That percussion base sounded something like Santana coming from an Afro Islamic tradition, but the dreadlocked leader was clearly frustrated by the lack of room on stage for his spectacular, freewheeling dance moves.

When Zahar’s electric instruments were added on top of that base, missing was the kind of song structure that can turn trance music from an abstract concept to something Western pop listeners can genuinely lose themselves in. One song featuring a near-rap vocal by Hakmoun and an Arabic melodic hook over a lurching but effective funk-rock groove pointed toward one possible avenue for making that connection.