Yousra Dhahbi: Rhapsody for Lute [Female oudist--and there aren't many around, or at least not many who make it onto a CD--from Tunisia.]Ensemble Al-Umayri: The Sawt of KuwaitEnsemble Muhammad Faris: The Sawt of BahrainVarious: Treasures of Algerian Music [2 CDs worth of older, archival, material.]
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, 30 July 2004 23:45 (nineteen years ago) link
Mohamed Ali Ensemble: Al Hawanem also looks good.
(These are listed on the new releases section at www.rashid.com.)
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 13:36 (nineteen years ago) link
I think it's interesting that while falsetto is traditionally frowned upon in Egyptian, and I think Lebanese and Syrian music, it seems pretty common in music from the Gulf states. At the very least, I think I've heard a couple Kuwaiti stars sing in falsetto.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link
It might not even be really good. There's some pretty cheesy stuff going on, but there's still something really great about it.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 23:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 21:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 October 2004 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 October 2004 19:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Thursday, 7 October 2004 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link
At the very least, they seem to be more about a musique concrete/cut-up approach than simply a presentation of recordings of Arabic music (as though they are simply using Arabic music as raw material).
But then again, maybe I will like them. Maybe they really are making a statement about the aural world that exists in the Arab world. (Call to prayer, Qur'anic recitation, clash of everything else music?)
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 October 2004 19:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 6 November 2004 15:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS, Saturday, 6 November 2004 16:50 (nineteen years ago) link
The CD itself is a totally unprofessional piece of work, with two or three more songs than there are tracks (and I mean songs that are completely unrelated to what came before on the same track). Plus, sometimes there will be a pause after one song and then another one will begin, then the track will end, then that song will resume with the next track. It's made in Houston, TX.
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 11 February 2005 12:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 18 February 2005 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Friday, 18 February 2005 14:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 24 February 2005 12:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 24 February 2005 12:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 24 February 2005 13:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 24 February 2005 13:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 31 March 2005 23:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 31 March 2005 23:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Accompanied Nazem al-Gazali in Iraq. That's about as prestigious as you can get for that time and place.
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 31 March 2005 23:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 2 April 2005 23:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 01:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 01:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 03:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS, Thursday, 14 April 2005 02:21 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.negrophonic.com/words/
"saturday, the Arabesk throwdown in Bruxelles. I´ll DJ with an eastward lean and do a brief collabo with Chronomad (who´ll play Persian percussion thru guitar amps over my beats). My Istanbul point man Serhat Köksal aka 2/5 BZ is gonna blast us with a live audio-visual set. No turistik - No egzotik! Turkish lo-fi punk sampler saz psychedelia never sounded/looked so good!"
― steve-k, Friday, 22 April 2005 13:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― steve-k, Friday, 22 April 2005 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― steve-k, Friday, 22 April 2005 20:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 10:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Friday, 29 April 2005 02:11 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.shahrokhmusic.com/oldmusic.htm
there are samples here. his album "ghoroob" ("dusk") is particularly amazing for the classic psychedelic instrumentation. his "dance mix" album has fantastic irangeles beats.
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 29 April 2005 03:14 (eighteen years ago) link
bombastic = defining characteristic of persian music!
OTOH if some of it sounds saccharine, i'd venture that it's because of cultural distance. same way asian music might sound harsh to westernized ears.
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 29 April 2005 03:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 29 April 2005 03:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Friday, 29 April 2005 03:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― steve-k, Friday, 29 April 2005 12:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Friday, 29 April 2005 12:45 (eighteen years ago) link
On the other hand, I've been extremely happen with some of the trad. pop Syrian things I've been buying, and I really like that (mostly solo) kanun CD by Abrahama Salman, and I definitely am going to look into a couple recent Gulfen releases. (See above.)
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link
http://f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/askthegirl/lst?.dir=/Party+from+Damascus!
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 8 May 2005 12:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 8 May 2005 12:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 8 May 2005 12:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 8 May 2005 12:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― volly halance, Sunday, 8 May 2005 13:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Steve K (Steve K), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS (Catalino) LaRue (RSLaRue), Saturday, 11 June 2005 12:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― RS (Catalino) LaRue (RSLaRue), Saturday, 11 June 2005 12:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Vornado, Saturday, 11 June 2005 14:31 (eighteen years ago) link
Maybe it's just the harem scenes in racist movies, but seldom will you hear a regional compilation at once so distant and so familiar. The Sahara is bigger than Europe, and insofar as these often nomadic artists—very few of whom I'd heard before, with only the jet-setting Tinariwen and one other on Festival in the Desert—have home bases, most hail from lands thousands of miles apart, and further off the musical map than Mali: Mauritania, Niger, Libya, the Morocco-occupied "Western Sahara." Yet except for the closer, a long poem-sermon with rosewood flute by an Algerian Berber, they share lulling chants, many by women, and a steady pulse that seems neither African nor European but "Arab," which it isn't. Although often born of political conflict, they evoke eternal things—subsistence beyond nations, a post-nuclear future, world without end amen. A
I don't think there's a generic thread for Saharan or N. African music, so I'm noting this here. This isn't my favorite type of stuff (I've been pretty underwhelemed with Tinariwen), but I like much of what I'm hearing on the audio samples. I don't know what Christgau knows (something I'm increasingly loath to underestimate), and I'm certainly no expert, but I wonder if he's wrong to back away so quickly from saying that the pulse here is Arab. I think on some tracks it is. Tadzi-Out's "Chet Féwet" sounds really close to traditional music from Kuwait, to me anyway. Just because the music isn't Arab music, doesn't mean some aspects of it are derived from the Arabs.
― RS LaRue (RSLaRue), Friday, 1 July 2005 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link