Ziad Rahbani

As a taste of things to come thanks to the collaborator, here's a little video fun- an absolute monster of a track from a man who should absolutely be recognized for the depth and quality of his work on a more worldwide scale. It is (and again this is all thanks to the new cultural source) called 'Abu Ali' and is a five part suite written and composed by Rahbani. This is some madly smooth funk action here, and a slightly sad reminder of just how urbane and cosmopolitan Beirut was (and can be) when other people aren't staging their wars there. Go ahead, take a half hour to relax, have a cup of nice strong coffee and imagine yourself in the Paris of the East......

Sadly a day later this post has taken on a new tone after the brutally sad events in Beirut and Syria. Our thoughts go out to those caught up in this madness.....

Folk Songs & Dances From Lebanon

After the recent mention of Fairuz, it seemed wrong to not post something of hers, thus we have this collection, an album I remember being in a friend's family record collection many years back. Side one features a pair of tracks from Fairuz, while another long standing staple of Lebanese pop, Sabah, holds down side 2. In one of those wonderful moments of things linking up weirdly, Sabah also makes an appearance in 'Bosta', easily the best dabke on a bus film ever made!

(In all seriousness it is a very entertaining movie and well worth the time should you come across it.)

In hopefully momentous news, things will be changing here soon- the blog will take on an all new look and an all new address to become a much more carefully curated deal, complete with some occasional expert input from another contributor. Onward and upward.......

Mohammed Abdel Wahab- Cleopatra

Staying in an Egyptian vein after last weeks post, here's a lovely album from another Delta great, Mr. Mohammed Abdel Wahab. Interestingly, amongst Abdel Wahab's typically prolific output are not only a song used as Libya's national anthem pre and post Gadaffi, but the anthems of Tunisia and the U.A.E. as well. As for information on this selection, you'll have to wait a few weeks  until my Arabic translator can be called upon to help me out with some of these liner notes, but for now the music is here .

Jennifer Grout & Umm Kulthum

A bit of a strange post this week, but bear with me. The young blonde woman above is Jennifer Grout, a 23 year old American who has made it to the finals of 'Arabs Got Talent' despite barely speaking the language. Already a classically trained singer, she fell in love with Arabic music a few years ago after hearing Fairouz and has become a very adept singer and Oud player as the clip proves. Currently living in Morocco to further her musical education, Ms. Grout was encouraged to enter the tryouts for the show and the rest is, as they say, history. There's a good story about her here and as someone who fell in love with Arabic music at about the same age thanks to Fairouz, I couldn't be happier for her- she's done well. In honor of Ms. Grout's performance, here's an excellent Umm Kulthum/Oum Kalsoum 45 for your enjoyment, all 4 sides of it!

Yugomelodii

I'm always willing to gamble on these self-released items, and here's it paying off. An album of well played Macedonian folk, obviously a US recorded and based band, but definitely the real deal. Couple of great zurla moments, some good singers- I'm happy. A bit of idle research however, and this record took on a real character. Our label mastermind, Atanas Kolarovski (that's him above), is quite the story. Born in a Macedonian village in 1926, he grew up in a pretty representive Balkan village community, played music under the guidance of friends and family, joined the army in WW2 at the age of 16, wound up in the Army choir and eventually in a national folk ensemble after the war. In the 70's he moved to Seattle where he's been involved in folk dance ever since- he was honored at a Seattle Folk Festival just last month in fact. Such a great backstory to an odd record found in a thrift store- you can hear it here.

Amar Prem

More of the Bollywood vinyl, and this time a more mellow piece of work. Music is by R.D. Burman but he's staying away from the full-on dance madness and working with a more classical styled sound, helped by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar on vocals, with one track sung by R.D.'s dad- S.D. Burman. It's lovely stuff, perfect for that post night out wind down or lazy morning start up. Get it here.

Godard Soundtracks Pt. 2

As genius as Godard's films are, the soundtracks are every bit as wonderful. Here's the other LP from this set. Tracks from A Bout De Souffle, Une Femme Est Une Femme and Alphaville amongst others, and featuring some brilliant Michel Legrand pieces and the utterly fantastic Anna Karina on a couple of tracks. Get Nouvelle Vague ici.

Fareed Al Atrash

Spelled 'Fareed' this time, but the same fantastic voice. There's a few classics here, obviously culled from other albums as there's no dates, recording info or even accurate transliteration of song titles! Still, Farid is the man, and the album is here. In other news, the second Wednesay is fast approaching so it's Discostan time for those in the LA area. Come along, it'll be another stormer of a night.

Arpadys- Sirocco

I know next to nothing about these guys except it's some pretty good French Space Disco. Google led me into a world of reviews of old school European discos which was culturally fascinating and distracting, so really all I can tell you is this is suitably gallic and odd, and they like their trancey jams as much as any Moroccan really, except Arpadys favour synths and bass as the means of delivery. Descendez ici.

Rabih Beaini

A bit of a digression here- this a new record and usually I avoid posting such things, but the scarcity of this and the quality of it mean I'm putting up here. (I was lucky enough to score this bit of vinyl on a recent trip to London, and yes, I am showing off.) The album is Albidaya, and it's from Rabih Beaini, a Lebanese born/Berlin resident composer. He works in a pretty experimental vein, has quite the array of analog synths and makes an incredibly good record. There's elements of free jazz, folk and psych rock in here, but melded beautifully. Well worth checking out here.

African Guitars Disc 2

I'm managing to drag this one out a bit, but here's disc 2 from the African Guitars set. As previously mentioned, this is definitely collector scum territory- 200 copies, box made from the wood of Mississippi's former location, slightly dubious pressing quality, but there's some good stuff in here. Disc 2 is electric stuff, but not the usual full on African blues/funk- there's material from Uganda, Kenya, Zaire and Sierra Leone (S.E. Rogie at his best) and it's all here.

On a live sort of note, for LA/SoCal residents, it's Discostan Wednesday again on the 9th of October at Footsies in Cypress Park, and this one should be a stormer- there's going to be live Zurla players! I'll post the flyer as soon as I get one, but please come on by if you're in the neighbourhood, it'll be a fun night.

The Pan Islamic Tradition- Music Of Morocco

Again apologies for a gap in posts- it was more travel which of course means more music to digitize. I'll get better about posting regularly, and here's some good stuff to start with. A 1975 Lyrichord release of some music from the Moroccan Islamic brotherhoods. Side 1 is Gnaoua/Gnawa recordings while Side 2 is less commonly heard J'bala tracks. All of it is seriously good, trancey jams. Get it here.

Omar Khorshid- Rhythms Of The Orient

There are certain artists I like a lot, and as previously mentioned, Omar Khorshid is most definitely one of them. Here's 1974's 'Rhythm Of The Orient' with a classic Rashid Distribution cover and the original release of 'Guitar El Chark'. It's a great record (and a sound file gifted by a friend) and it's here.

Куд Кочо Рацин

Another of my digitizing projects is the stack of Balkan 'folk' 45's that's accumulated, and here's a good one. Macedonians doing 'Folk Dances For The Zurla & Drum'. I'm a huge fan of anything involving reeds, and the Macedonians do it well, from bagpipes to the simple zurla. (A convenient visiting expert was helpful in explaining some of the finer points of the instruments which was quite interesting indeed.) Преземете the tracks here.

Bairaag

Apologies for the lag on this post, it's been busy with a last minute trip and some issues with storage volume. Excuses aside, it's all sorted and we're back on it. A recent project has been the ripping of some Bollywood vinyl, and here's the start of that- 'Bairaag', from 1976. Kalyanji Anadji in charge of the music, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshka and Mahendra Kapoor on the vocals- you can't go wrong. Better yet, the film stars the very lovely Leena Chandavarkar who's first husband died in an accidental shooting and who's second husband was the much older Kishore Kumar, all of which is fantastically Bollywood. Enjoy the music here.

Discostan 1 Year Anniversary!

Come on down!

A delay....

Sorry friends, storage space issues. It will be fixed by this time next week as soon as a little burst of travel is over. There's good stuff waiting to be uploaded, and the digitization of the Bollywood vinyl has started in earnest, so be prepared. In the meantime, enjoy this. The first minute and a half is a bizarre collection of stills, but then it gets going and does it ever get going......

Turkish Delight

Another one of those things with really interesting music hidden inside a dubious cover. Side one is really more Macedonian gypsy music (Esma Rejepova & Stevo Teodsievski being present) while side 2 features the Dolgru Yol Turkish Ensemble doing exactly what you'd want them to do. Monitor Records had an interesting run there, lots of very good and authentic folkloric style music repackaged into at best cheesy and often slightly lurid covers- an interesting artistic concept for a label, but not too different to several of the current reissue labels do nowadays. Get the gypsy/Ottoman party here.

Discostan

LA folks come on over, I've got new stuff from Egypt to play in honor of the dancers, and it'll be fun. Music post in the next day or two I promise, life has been hectic.......

Godard Soundtracks (pt1)

From yet another limited edition vinyl bootleg we have some Nouvelle Vague genius. This disc includes the very brilliant ye-ye of Chantal Goya from the 'Masculin-Feminin' soundtrack as well as Antoine Duhamel's moody 'Weekend' classicism, a berserk Claude Channes track from 'La Chinoise' and Gabriel Yared's 'Sauve Qui Peut' contribution. It's wonderful stuff, music to chain smoke Gauloises to while contemplating the pitiable state of consumerist society. Obtenir ici.

Farid al-Atrash

Or El-Atrache, in French, or فريد الأطرش, whichever you choose he was a superstar. King of the Oud, starred in over 30 movies and a great romantic figure ('marriage kills art' says Farid as he squires around beautiful dancers and assorted royalty) all of which is backed up by a fabulously rich and emotive voice. Couple of live songs here, and this is a clip from one of his movies with the lovely Samia Gamal, his companion for much of his life.

Solaris

Eduard Artemyev's soundtrack is as much a work of genius as Tarkovsky's film- stripped down electronics that absolutely captures the feeling of foreboding and alienation that the film drips with. Ideal on a grey afternoon like this one. музыка здесь

Ziad Rahbani- Bellydance!

Apologies for the lack of action, it's been a mad month. I haven't been entirely useless though, there's music getting uploaded and ready to go. This item, despite the dubious cover, is a great place to launch back in. From 1972, it's Ziad Rahbani's debut recording. Solidly good and traditional cabaret stuff, killer band with Setrak Sarkissian on tabla- his name is on a few records I like and the young Ziad laying down some excellent organ lines. It's here, and courtesy of a lovely Lebanese, here's the later slick and chanson-y Ziad. Enjoy.

 

Sadan Sakib

A 45 this time, and I know nothing more about it than what you see on the sleeve. I couldn't find any info on Sadan, but he sung with Esma Redzepova and the Ensemble Toedosievski on a number of recordings, so this must have been an early solo effort. Whatever it is, it's good and it's here.

Mehrpouya- Soul Raga

There was that brief window in post-WWII Iran where things got sort of loose, the Shah was losing his grip, foreign influences (other than coups to overthrow democratically elected governments) were seeping in and militant Islam was not yet taking over. Some fantastic music was made, and Mehrpouya's contributions were among it's best. Here is 'Soul Raga'- heavy sitar funk, but played by a seriously skilled classical musician- hearing this played in it's time and place must have been a wild ride. For now however, check this out and there's a very excellent 3LP compilation titled 'Soul Raga- Best Of Mehrpouya' just released by Pharaway Sounds that I can't recommend highly enough.

Arab Music

Sadly I have very little information to share on this music- Lyrichord put out some exceptional recordings with slightly useless liner notes. I can tell you the first side is folk songs from Upper Egypt (and fantastic they are too) while the second side is more formal instrumentals, but as to who the artists are or when it was recorded- no idea. Well worth a listen though, get it here.

Alla Pugacheva- How Disturbing Is This Way

How awesome is the Soviet Dali deal on the album cover. Alla is a Russian superstar- her career started in Siberia, she's had a string of inappropriately young and careerist husbands, she's a judge on the Russian version of one of those talent shows and she nade some great records. This one has the traditional epic pop balladeering and some moments of A-Grade Eastern Bloc disco funk. It's here.

Ensemble Instrumental National Du Mali

At a point when poor old Mali is embroiled in yet another stupid conflict, here's some seriously fine mid 70's musical culture. The national orchestras were a hotbed of talent from straight up traditional styles as you get here, to the wild and wonderful griot/funk ensembles (definitely invest in the mindblowing L'Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti reissue for that side of the sound). In this version of the group (formed in 1961) you have Djelimadi Sissoko (of The Rail Band) on track 3 and Mande Kouyate on the last track amongst other fine singers. My vinyl is a little worn so there's pops and ticks, but it's still worth the effort. Download.

Here's the band doing what they do so well, sometime in the early 80's apparently.

African Guitars

Another one from Mississippi that is predictably collectable- 5 LPs of African guitar music spanning 1951 to 1970, 200 copies done and in a wooden box. There's no information other than the artists and song titles and a weird flow of styles over albums, but it's a beautiful time capsule of some wonderful music from the edges of African pop. Disc 1 is mostly Congolese and Kenyan artists, have at it here.

Orient Express Disco Sound

Seriously- it's called 'Orient Express Disco Sound' and the cover looks like that? Just download it.

Dabke!

Attached to the market I frequent is a Hookah shop- pipes and accutrements- Arabesque tat like embroidered pillows and glittery shawls, a few belly dance outfits and a small selection of CDs. There are however, some gems in there. This one I have no idea about at all as it's a somewhat bootleg looking deal- no label, no sleevenotes, song/artist listing in Arabic and cover of a dark eyed beauty photoshopped over a line of dancers. Obviously worth buying, and here it is. Modern dabke, all beats and cheap synths and immensely fun. What better way to start the New Year?