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

Beatz & Carrots #6 (March 2012)

01 - joubert singers - stand on the word (hot coins remix)

02 - sly & robbie - burru saturday

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

04 - johnny clarke - none shall escape the judgement (orig. egyptian reggae riddim!!!)

05 - king tubby & the aggrovators - a social version

06 - ely camargo - taieiras

07 - buena vista social club - chan chan (dj yamin remix)

08 - quintette guinenne - douga

09 - watusi - oio gere (alkalino rework)

10 - captain planet - samba radiante 2011 (chris read remix)

11 - eddy grant & the coach house rhythm section - timewarp

12 - banderas ft bouloukou - mogomake (lack of afro remix)

13 - the temptations - papa was a rolling stone (b.cause jamming dub edit)

14 - ray vs. beatsy collins - i got a woman

15 - razika - why have we to wait

16 - the pussycats - why have we to wait

17 - booker t & the mg's - hip hug-her (danny massure mastered)

18 - haruomi hosono, suzuki shigeru, tatsuro yamashita - passion flower

19 - jimmy cliff - sitting in limboton (dj theory remix)

20 - tall black guy - what's good (james brown - i feel good flip up)

21 - yusef lateef – passacaglia

This Beatz & Carrots #6 compilation should have been posted here like two weeks ago – a nice & fresh selection of musical favourites from the month of March - songs which I have listened to a lot, some brand new – some old and dusted – but nevertheless fresh and exciting. As usual - a colourful, eclectic mix of different styles... We start with a nice wonky dubbed out Hot Coins remix of the gospel disco classic „Stand On The Word“ by the Joubert Singers – probably one of the best and biggest Disco gospel songs ever made. According to Soul Sides and discogs.com: "Stand On The Word" was first ever recorded live in the First Baptist Church in Crown Heights, NYC, in 1982. Soon after the church pressed up a couple of hundred copies for the congregation," upon which, it was discovered by local DJs at places like Garage, The Loft, etc. and ended up getting a promo-release on Next Plateau (on both 12" and 7"). There's some disagreement over who actually remixed the song - there's a bootleg 12" you can find that credits Larry Levan but the actual record nods to Tony Humphries so go figure. Either way, it's just great.“ Track #2 „Burru Saturday“ - is a beautiful dub song - having one foot in the past, and one in the present - from Sly and Robbie's latest production Blackwood Dub. Track #3 is a izziwise remix of „Hanwil Tanza“ by the great Nubian singer and bandleader Ali Hassam Kuban. Love this remix! Beautiful raw, powerful, funky, fresh... And those vocals. Perfect combination!!! Check out his website for more. Track #7 was another soundcloud find: Buena Vista Social Club's song "Chan Chan" covered by The Mattanoll Brass Band Review and remixed with a bit more of that hard hitting Hip-Hop feel by DJ Yamin. Love the original, but this review and remix is definitely adding its own class to the original without dominating it - both songs forming a close union... And then comes track #08 – which must be one of the most beautiful, sweet, haunting songs I have listened to in a while - a kind of joyful ballad by the Quintette Guinenne – merging older African roots and modern jazz music. Its addictive!!! Track #9 is another joyful song which I think is from Brazil: Watusi - OioGere (Alkalino Rework). Musical Sunshine! Track #11 is „Timewarp“ by Eddy Grant's backing band „The Coach House Rhythm Section“. It's hard to compute this disco not disco monster came out in 1977 (the same year as Kraftwerk's „Trans Europe Express“). The vocal version of this song is called „Nobody's got time“ and you just need to listen to where he takes the instrumental to understand why it was labeled 'Timewarp'. Heavy Heavy Heavy Stuff! Eddy Grant – for having released so many classic tracks – he definitely deserves to get more credit! Huge artist! Track #13 - The Temptations - Papa Was ARolling Stone (b.cause jamming dub edit) gives us a well deserved break. Deep & beautiful Song! What a great idea it is to mash up the Temptations classic with Bob Marley's Jamming! Track #18 takes us to some exotic Pacific Island via Japan: „Haruomi Hosono, Suzuki Shigeru, Tatsuro Yamashita - Passion Flower“. I found this little disco gem on yer darling daily - which must be one of my favourite blogs out there – sharing such a variety of exiting & eclectic music. This is what he had to say about this song: „Aw yeah. Three incomparable instrumentalists, one sparkling disco rhinestone. You might call this elevator music. But it’s the kind you’d hear as you breeze out of the elevator at your Hanalei Bay resort, hiding behind your Ray-Bans, and someone hands you a coconut with a straw in it. Oh yes.“ - couldn't have said it better! If you want to get into more good Japanese music – try „JAPS ONRY 4: WAKARIMASEN“ at Ying Yangs. Track #19 – and we are slowly coming to the end of this months Beatz & Carrots selection – is DJ Theory having some fun with Jimmy Cliff's summertime classic „Sitting in Limbo“. And not only he is having fun and feeling much better! A1 remix!!! Everybody „Feeling Good“ now?! Then we can listen to track #20: What's Good (James Brown – I Feel Good Flip Up), a dope dope dope instrumental by the independent hip hop producer Tall Black Guy from Detroit, Michigan. That's it! Hit the download button and leave a comment if you enjoy the music... DubMe

PS: If you want to know more about the record which I used for the cover of this months Beatz & Carrots compilation – have a look at Beatz & Carrots #4.

And! This compilation fits perfectly on one CD - just click "NO PAUSE BETWEEN TRACKS" when you are going to burn it - and the CD will be exactly 79:43 long...