Trance (Hassan Hakmoun album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Calgary Herald	B+[13]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[14]
MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide	[10]

The Chicago Reader wrote that Hakmoun "transplanted the mysteriously powerful trance-out grooves of Gnawa music into a vital, contemporary sound without watering down its primal spirit."^[15] The Guardian determined that "all but one of the songs are underpinned by muscular percussion, and veer from mesmeric Arabic chanting to bursts of jazz fusion, sax solos, frenzied guitar work, or—strangest of all—a Moroccan interpretation of Jamaican ragga."^[16]

The Calgary Herald stated that Hakmoun's "voice reaches deep and soars high while singing of human love, of the ways of Allah," writing that the music incorporates "rock and funk, percussive Afro-jazz grooves, buoyed by wild guitar riffs and sax solos."^[13] The Edmonton Journal deemed the album "innovative, vibrant Afro-beat."^[17] Rolling Stone concluded: "Black Moroccan Gnawa funk rock, Trance is a world fusion that works—even the obligatory hiphop mix is on the dime."^[11]

AllMusic wrote: "From the Hendrix-in-a-fez riff of 'Bania' to the fuzz-box nirvana of 'Challaban', Trance asserts psychedelic sovereignty over Moroccan sensibilities that hippie hash-heads once claimed as their own music base."^[12]