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Julian Belbachir [pronounced Bell-Ba-Sheer] is a N’goni player (African Harpist) drummer, percussionist, producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist born in Sydney, to Moroccan and Australian parents. “Julz” starting drumming as a five year old and is a highly regarded artist best known as the jubilant percussionist in the massive grass-roots Indigenous dub band OKA. Julz has performed in over 30 countries including shows at Glastonbury Festival UK, Byron Blues Fest and Vancouver int’l Jazz festival. He has dedicated life to studying and playing traditional folkloric music of North and West Africa and as such is creatively in demand and has collaborated with artists such as Tash Sultana, P’nau and Canadian acts Tribe Called Red and Leonard Sumner. Raised in the Surry Hills & Redfern areas of Sydney in the late 1980’s at a time when those suburbs where densely populated by a variety of strong cultures such as Aboriginal, African, Caribbean, Pacific Islander and many different others. It was living there and forging lifetime friendships during his formative years that Julz learned about, and shared in different cultures from a very young age. This environment shaped his musical sensibilities to create his own unique sound that fuses traditional music with western contemporary and electronic vibes. In 2022 Julz released his debut solo album titled Babdoukkala [BAB DOU KA-LA]] which debuted in the Top 30 ‘Transglobal World Music Chart’ and received critical acclaim worldwide including 5 stars in Songlines UK who listed the album in the Top Ten of the worlds best releases that month. Produced in collaboration with long-term collaborator Alex Richardson. Babdoukkala features an array of hugely talented world class artists such as Moussa Diakite (Mali / Aus), Malin Sylla (Guinea / Aus), Lamine Sonko (Senegal / Aus), Imad Dabbly (Morocco) & Q VLN (USA).