The Sharka Sessions
Simon’s latest loops project “The Sharka Sessions” is a collection of drum and percussion loops. The loops were sampled straight from the tracks of the Chaka Chouka album “Sharka”.
They contain elements of reggae, Moroccan music, funk, rock and Simon’s unique palette of creative influences.
This is a unique collection of loops not only for the content but also for the context. The Sharka album was recorded during the first lockdown in 2020. Based on a drum and percussion loop that Simon had put on hold for a rainy day, he wrote “Gnaoua Reggae” on guitar and melodica in his studio in Meknès, Morocco. Mouna Eddrou, a French–Moroccan singer added her vocals and the Chaka Chouka sound was forged. The album project “Sharka” was born.
Four months later, with hundreds of files pinging back and forth across the Mediterranean, an album was complete.
The fact that the loops are sampled from an album adds an element of musicality to them. There is an emotion and energy that can’t be generated in loops that are recorded in the studio with no musical context.
Organic and chewy, these loops will get your creative juices flowing!
The content
Reggae drums including one-drop, steppers and ska beats. Layered percussion found in old-school reggae.
Moroccan drums and percussion including gnaoua, El twet, Aissawa, Hamadcha, chaabi and rai styles.
Funk and rock drums.
The Sharka Sessions project contains almost 7.8G of material! This includes:
127 drums and percussion loops and 235 Mb of sound effects samples and hits.
Each loop contains:
- a full mix (wet and dry). These mixes allow you to have a quick listen to the full loops and to fly this into a project to get you up and running and creative!
- separate drum kit and percussion section mixes. These mixes allow more flexibility than the full mixes and allow you to start arranging the composition.
- Simon’s mixes. These mixes have been put together by Simon and combine certain elements of the loop. Great for ideas!
- sound effects samples. These are the dub effects used by Simon in the original track projects.
Similar in structure to Simon’s “Total Groove” loops project, the Sharka Sessions is both a comprehensive and varied set of loops and samples and also a powerful and intuitive song writing tool.
Because of the size of the project file, the Sharks Sessions is not available for direct download but if you are interested in the loops or in a possible collaborative project with Simon then please contact him here.
Feel free to also visit his Youtube page where you’ll find videos of Simon and Mouna playing as well as loops and songs. Please subscribe to his channel if you like what he does!