Muzikfan,
Best of 2010
>>
This is a collection of dance tracks from Arabia with diverse source material treated to electronica and a dubby sensibility. The album title is a bit of a joke because the Spy is Moreno Visini who has appeared on scores of DeeJay comps from BUDDHA BAR to the Zeb albums. But fame in the world of DeeJays is hardly front-page. The album kicks off in style with the high-pitched whining sound of the nay (a bamboo flute) blown at a Jordanian wedding, though it sounds like a wedding of snake-charmers. It is reminiscent of Arabic Groove, Michael Jackson as envisioned by Fellini, and indeed Spy movies! There's oud and darbouka (the traditional percussion) and Visini has added a dubby bass line to push it along. Because we think of arabic music as inherently trance-like it's a good mix of repetition and mood-setting themes. This one is likely to supplant Arabic Groove on the popularity front. It has the same diversity, from belly-dance to Sufi trance, & is just as catchy and compelling. "Kurdish delight" continues the nay theme, and the dub attack, with a breakdown to bass, drum loops and something that sounds like shorting-out wires or a sound-board on the fritz. Tunisian woman singer Ghalia Benali shows up for the first of four appearances on "Ana Arabi," a song about being an Arab, not a terrorist. There's a flat spot in the middle then things perk up with wild violin on "Leila." "Sufi disco" is a humorous name, because it's the spaciest track on here. You kind of forget where you are, until the bass and tambourine kick up a sandstorm for the next track, "Saidi the Man." This has wild flute and a cheap synthesized rhythm reminiscent of Bollywood soundtracks from the 70s. Then suddenly we are whisked to the Atlas Mountains by "Reggada," a very different sound with that dusky Joujouka flute emerging from a big cloud of smoke. 12/18/10
>> go there
|