Habibi funk
March 11, 2015 8:46 AM Subscribe
“I got to travel a lot in North Africa in the last years through touring with Blitz the Ambassador,” Jannis writes on his Soundcloud page, “and the studio session with Oddisee for Sawtuha in Tunisia. While being there, I did some digging and found some incredible music from the ’60s and ’70s. Some of the music in this mix has zero info on the Net, was never sold on eBay, and has not been ‘rediscovered’ yet. Others are somewhat classics in the field of ‘Arabic groove.’ The music in this mix comes from Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, and Syria.”
I'm listening to Part 1 right now. Here's the direct link.
posted by asterix at 9:25 AM on March 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by asterix at 9:25 AM on March 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Mashallah
posted by Corduroy at 10:44 AM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Corduroy at 10:44 AM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have a good (older) Egyptian friend-colleague who is always waxing nostalgic about music of this age and this genre. "Ahh, Barchan, you should have heard it," he is always telling me. "It was a completely different time." It's obvious he has some good memories, but I've also inferred from the way he talks that he has some stories about listening to some of this music which involve breaking some parental/cultural/religious boundaries.
I sent him this and just got an email back in which he was so excited he forgot English. So I think it's safe to say your post made someone's day. Thanks.
posted by barchan at 10:59 AM on March 11, 2015 [10 favorites]
I sent him this and just got an email back in which he was so excited he forgot English. So I think it's safe to say your post made someone's day. Thanks.
posted by barchan at 10:59 AM on March 11, 2015 [10 favorites]
are we on MetaFilter?!
no one's yet mentioned the synth-meows in the first song of the first mix!! awesome-sauce!
Mash'Allah indeed :D
going to share with my French-Maghrebi friends and ply them for their parents' vinyls...
posted by fraula at 11:30 AM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
no one's yet mentioned the synth-meows in the first song of the first mix!! awesome-sauce!
Mash'Allah indeed :D
going to share with my French-Maghrebi friends and ply them for their parents' vinyls...
posted by fraula at 11:30 AM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
That is fantastic to listen to!
I came across this Arab Tunes blog a while ago, and keep checking up on it or diving into the archives for new/old stuff from the region.
The same person that runs that has an 8tracks account with a bunch of mixtapes of Arab music of different genres ranging from Jazz to Reggae, Experimental, Rap, Rock and more. [I just wish 8tracks had a better way to find the track listing in a playlist without having to play through the whole thing].
posted by xqwzts at 12:12 PM on March 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
I came across this Arab Tunes blog a while ago, and keep checking up on it or diving into the archives for new/old stuff from the region.
The same person that runs that has an 8tracks account with a bunch of mixtapes of Arab music of different genres ranging from Jazz to Reggae, Experimental, Rap, Rock and more. [I just wish 8tracks had a better way to find the track listing in a playlist without having to play through the whole thing].
posted by xqwzts at 12:12 PM on March 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
Fantastic, thanks!
Some of the music in this mix has zero info on the Net
This is still true of some local western music, especially when the bands are more interested in playing than promoting themselves. The internet isn't as pervasive as we like to think.
I just wish 8tracks had a better way to find the track listing in a playlist without having to play through the whole thing
That has to do with licensing, assuming 8tracks has the same requirements that Mixcloud does.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:33 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Some of the music in this mix has zero info on the Net
This is still true of some local western music, especially when the bands are more interested in playing than promoting themselves. The internet isn't as pervasive as we like to think.
I just wish 8tracks had a better way to find the track listing in a playlist without having to play through the whole thing
That has to do with licensing, assuming 8tracks has the same requirements that Mixcloud does.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:33 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
You can find a bit on Youtube as well, loads more if you know French and Arabic.
Even with just English – Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band are great, and there are a couple songs by Abdou el Omari that are also well worth a listen.
Assa'd Khoury synth meows: Al Ghaba.
Sheikh Boutaiba Saidi has some sweet beats.
posted by fraula at 2:31 PM on March 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Even with just English – Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band are great, and there are a couple songs by Abdou el Omari that are also well worth a listen.
Assa'd Khoury synth meows: Al Ghaba.
Sheikh Boutaiba Saidi has some sweet beats.
posted by fraula at 2:31 PM on March 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
These are the best things to share!
posted by oceanjesse at 6:43 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by oceanjesse at 6:43 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Wow - thank you for this.
posted by jammy at 5:51 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jammy at 5:51 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I wish this thread was a bit more active but it's helped me find some wonderful stuff nonetheless. Obviously there's a lot of great music in the Arab world. I've always been a sucker for Boutaiba s'ghir - Dayha Oulabes. I love the universality of music, I grew up in the American south but this stuff stirs my soul. Plus there's that strangeness, the language, instruments I'm unfamiliar with. I often think cinematically when I listen to foreign music in my car, like old Cambodian rock, just to re-contextualize my environment and give it new energy. I think that's one thing I really like about it, that combination of familiarity and weirdness activates the imagination somehow. It feeds divergent thinking.
posted by PHINC at 8:55 PM on March 14, 2015
posted by PHINC at 8:55 PM on March 14, 2015
« Older The Kitchen Bladesmith | "If Kubla Khan built his pleasure dome in St.... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Looks like Part 1 of the mix has been taken off of Soundcloud (it's not loading inthe linked article or showing up on the Jakarta Records Soundcloud page). Is it up anywhere else?
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 9:02 AM on March 11, 2015