Oriental Disco & Acid Arab (2012)

01 - the g*slamp killer - n*ssim (ft. amir yaghmai)

02 - adil el miloudi - track 2 (dj su-real club mix)

03 - ali hussan kuban - hanwil tanza (izzywise remix)

04 - ahmed fakroun - nisyan

05 - paris casablanca - dancing in cairo (dr. dread edit)

06 - senay - honki ponki

07 - figen han - pisi pisi

08 - senay - dalkavuk

09 - elias rahbani and his orchestra - liza... liza

10 - bebi dol - mustafa

11 - ahmed fakroun - love words

12 - badawi - final warning

13 - kai warner's oriental express - fly butterfly

14 - john berberian & rock east ensemble - iron maiden

15 - ouiness - zina (128 bitrate rip from soundcloud)

16 - orient express - abdullah's wedding

17 - sahara band – habibi

If you enjoyed Oriental Discotheque - Disco Not Disco (2012) from a few months ago - here is more for you! ''Oriental Disco & Acid Arab (2012)'': Oriental & Arab Disco, Disco Not Disco, No Wave, Leftfield, Edit, Balearic, Pop-Boogie-Electro, Cosmic & Italo Disco with an Oriental Theme...

Mister Guido Minisky, DJ, artistic director at the Chez Moune Club (Paris), responsible for the great Kid Creole compilation Going Places - The August Darnell Years 1974-1982 & most importantly ACID ARAB frontman, probably gave a better name to this musical movement - calling it ACID ARAB: ''The idea is to give a name to this musical movement, and to present ourselves not as "know-it-all geeks" but as 2 djs playing house & oriental music...'' For more info please visit & join ACID ARAB on facebook here and here. Lots of info & music shared there, tune recommendations via youtube, mixes & more... And its growing! Finally the ''Acid Arab Genie Is Out of the Bottle'' - sharing all those magic! Also check out the Acid Arab soundcloud page.

I am starting this compilation with Nissim from The Gaslamp Killer. "Nissim" a song named after Gaslamp's late grandfather, who grew up in Istanbul, is a richly arranged Turkish soul groove with a break-beat bounce to it and a special catch: every instrument on it was played live. Here's Gaslamp with a few words: "I was listening to this old Turkish song over and over, and I said to myself, 'Lord, this is too good. I don't wanna just loop it like I used to. I should get with some musicians and recreate this. ' So I got (producer) Daedelus on bass, and Amir Yaghmai from Jogger on guitar and yiali tambur, and we just jammed. It sounded so good that Amir offered to bring in some Middle Eastern professionals he knew, and then they redid it while I sat in and directed the band." Track #2 is DJ Su-Real's Club Mix of an amazing tune by Tangiers phenomenon Adil El Miloudi who performs a contemporary version of traditional Moroccan music. This is what DJ Su-Real himself says about the original and his remix: ''I love the searing female vocals that enter in the second verse, and the sauntering rhythm is entrancing (...) I stuck a simple little 4×4 under the track and just let it ride, and now its ready to burn up the dancefloor…'' Read more about Adil El Miloudi here. Track #4 is Nisyan by Ahmed Fakroun, who was already featured twice on the first Oriental Discotheque compilation here on the blog. Ahmed Fakroun, born in Lybia, is an arabian disco and electro pioneer. In the 70's and 80's he spend a lot of time in England, France and Italy. ''According to Wikipedia, this song was arranged by Nicolas Vangelis (?) and Ahmed Fakroun, and recorded in Italy. I especially love the vocals on the second verse. Ahmed is breaking off lots more mp3s for your enjoyment over here. Also make the voyage to ahmedfakroun.com.'' (Art Decade) Track #5 is Paris Casablanca - Dancing In Cairo (dr. dread edit) - a superbly bizarre and little-known French disco production. The title track ''Dancing In Cairo'' is the most appealing to my ears. The lyrics start "Dancing in Cairo, Everywhere you go, Heavy perfume flows, In Cairo...". After 2 minutes the disco tune blends into a syncopated flute-driven middle-eastern sound, and then back out into an alto-sax solo, before returning to the main tune... For me the best part of the song is that 30 seconds of 'syncopated flute-driven middle-eastern sound' - anyone out there who could deliver a proper edit/extended version of that 30 seconds?! Track #6 is the Turkish disco delight Honki Ponki by Turkish singer and actress Senay. Taken from here 1980 album of the same name. There is also a funk’ed up version by edit master Baris K available. Track #7 Figen Han - Pisi Pisi is another great song from Turkey - a dirty, funky slow Disco groover with nice instrumentation & lots of moans. Not much more info available on this song - unless you can read Turkish. Track #8 is Dalkavuk by Senay - another good track from her above mentioned album. Real nice jam, mad synthesizers, the drummer's minimal sleeze style in perfect harmony with her vocal stylings. Google translate defines "dalkavuk" as "syncophant"... Track #9 - Liza...Liza by Elias Rahbani and his Orchestra takes you on an almost 8 minute Lebanese disco ride with lots fuzz. Wild! Track #10 is what ACID ARAB is all about - taking our love for the Orient in all its various form on to the dancefloor. Mustafa is a phenomenal 1981 track by Serbian Bebi Dol from former Yugoslavia. Almost industrial, raw 4AD-esque production, with some On-U Sound Dub influences, exotic or even oriental melodies, astonishing female vocal performances and whatever else the 1980's communism block was hidding. Very unique track. Read more here. Track #11 is yet another song by Ahmed Fakroun. Love Words + Soleil Soleil are my favourite two songs from his 1983 release Mots D'amour, a great record filled with oriental disco and electro. Track #12 Final Warning by Badawi is as ACID as ACID ARAB can get. Raz Mesinai's (aka Badawi) is an experimental music alchemist along the same lines as Muslimgauze (whom I unfortunately have neglected to give a proper listen yet). His music is usually highly rhythmic with a particular keen sense of microtonal sound - and a lot of middle eastern influences. He released his first album in 1994 as a 20 year old. Since then he has released almost 20 albums, EP's & 12inches under various pseudonyms, his last in 2011 under his moniker Badawi called Index ¹⁻² No Schnitzel. The next song - track #13 - Fly Butterfly, is some exotic slo mo funky disco courtesy of Kai Warner's Oriental Express. Originally released in 1976 on a Phillips 7inch. Thanks to Psychemagik for sharing this beauty on his blog (well worth checking out if you are looking for more ''Musical Treasures from The Cosmic Forest''). Track #14 Iron Maiden by John Berberian & His Rock East Ensemble has been a favourite of mine since I bought the original long-player Middle Eastern Rock (1969) as a teenager. John Berberian is an American-Armenian oud player who pioneered fusions of middle eastern music with modern psychedelic rock in the 1960's. The song "Iron Maiden" is an adaptation of another Armenian-American oudist by the name of Chick Ganimian's piece Welcome to the Casbah. Go here and here to read more on John Berberian. Mister Guido Minisky from ACID ARAB introduced me to track #15 - Ouiness – Zina on his soundcloud a while ago. Not much info available on this song from 1979, except that Ouiness probably was from Morocco. According to Radio Diffusion he apparently won a Special Mention at a International music competition in Paris. This is what Guido Minisky himself is saying about this song: ''What if Talking Heads were from Morocco? They would have recorded this song for their first album in 1977''. Yes! And we would probably have a great edit of this song by Greg Wilson in the tradition of his edit of Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads. Classic material! (The 'Ouiness - Zina' song unfortunately is only a 128 bitrate rip from soundcloud). Track #16 is Abdullah's Wedding by Orient Express. Taken from their 1978 album A Desert Fantasy, "Abdullah's wedding" is some proper Oriental/Arab Disco with catchy vocals, a wailing chorus, percussion - and the lyrics are supposedly also very funny. Early on in the song, the lyrics are: "Will you marry Abdullah, tell me my dear..." Eventually towards the end of the song, we finally get a reply: "Don't want Abdullah, I found another, I like his father better than him!" I am ending this compilation with track #17 Habibi by the Sahara Band, a 1983 Italo Disco song with some oriental influence, a catchy melody and some beautiful female vocals - which I don't understand a bit - but find really beautiful: sweeter than sugar! Also make sure to check out the instrumental Samba version of Habibi. Now let's go ACID ARAB...

Enjoy! DubMe