Western club-goers have been partying to Middle Eastern music for years. When you thought you were grooving to Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin,” you were really dancing to Abdel Halim Hafez’s “Khosara.” Listen to Aaliyah’s “More Than a Woman” and then compare it to Mayad El Hennawi’s “Aloly Ensi.” Sound familiar? Someone even made an entire YouTube clip about how producer Timbaland rips off Middle Eastern artists. But I personally dig that classical Arabic music is constantly being innovated and revamped in contemporary Western music.

And at least one Western artist directly attributes his inspiration to the beats of Morocco and Egypt.  DJ and all-around talented instrumentalist Moreno Visini (aka “The Spy From Cairo”) takes the classic sounds of the Middle East and creates a whole new sound that’s fit for the Western dance clubs. The oud, violins and tabla drums are all still there, but they are mixed with electronic beats that compliment and extenuate them rather than overpower them. It is still good old-fashioned Arabic music, but re-envisioned to fit a Western club aesthetic. 

According to a Washington Post review of Visini’s latest record, “Secretly Famous,” the artist was raised in an Italian gypsy home and hopes with this record to “expose Western dance mavens to the sumptuous, wide-ranging music of the Arab countries of the Middle East, a world he believes to be gravely misunderstood.”

The song, “Oud Funk” would be the theme song to an Arab version of James Bond. “Ana Arabi” features the vocals of Tunisian singer Ghalia Genali whose voice is smooth and darkly enchanting. The song is hypnotizing - like I almost don’t want to listen to it for too long because I’m afraid Genali is casting a spell on me. But my favorite track on the record is “Blood & Honey,” which reminds me of a whirling dervish spinning around and around.

“Secretly Famous” has the repetitive, trippy quality of Western club trance music, but without losing the classic beauty of traditional Arabic music. The music is intense and hypnotic in the best way. Listening to Abdel Halim Hafez makes me think of the Arab world’s heyday and how far we have slid since then. Listening to the “Spy From Cairo” makes me wonder what we have yet to accomplish.