Artist Analysis: Munir Khauli

This isn’t really an analysis, but I’m writing it like one, so yeah it’s kind of an artist analysis.

 A lot of people are under the impression that pre-90s, there was no underground activity whatsoever, and that it all started with the groups that emerged in the late 90s and early 2000s.

 Well, I recently managed to get my hands on a compilation album that’s been out there since 2006, and that album would be “Banadoura” (to be reviewed in the future), a recollection of Lebanese underground music from the past 20 years (or it was, three years ago when it was released), but it leans more towards the humorous and absurd, so you shouldn’t expect SoapKills in there.

 But one artist you can expect in there caught my eye because he was given quite the impressive title; the godfather of the Lebanese alternative music scene. He’s comically dubbed himself “Tanin el Tarab”.  I’m talking about Mr. Munir Khauli.

-Name: Munir Khauli 

-Members: Variable, but Walid Itayim can almost always be found supporting him on guitar.

-Years Active: 1986-Present

-Genre:  Rock, Blues, Jazz, Latin, Folk, Traditional Middle Eastern

-History: This is my blurry rendition of his life so far. Munir Khauli was born in 1959 (and is still kicking today). He started playing guitar at a young age and was influenced by the greats of rock music (Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Deep Purple, etc…) as well as jazz, blues, and traditional Lebanese music. He got a degree in English literature from the AUB.  He moved to Berkley, California in 1982 as the Lebanese civil war was raging on.

 At some point here he reverted from writing songs in English to writing them in Arabic.

 His first album “Heik Ha Nishtghil?” was released (on cassette) in 1986. It was confined to his immediate US environment until later being released in Lebanon one year later.

 Returning to Beirut, with the aid of fellow veteran underground musician, Walid Itayim, he performed at Irwin Hall, BUC (LAU to us now). In the summer of 88, he performed at AUB’s West Hall. That same year he released his second cassette “Khatimet Heik Ha Nishtighil?” In the summer of 1991, he performed in Gulbenkian theatre, BUC (LAU) and released his third cassette “Bil 3arabil Mshabrah”. In 1994 he was one of the most well known local alternative musicians.  That same year, he joined Ziad Rahbani’s backup band, appearing on his albums during that era, as well as Fairuz’s (Ziad’s mother). Other notable performances include the Hamra Festival in June 1996, B018 (yes, he’s played there) the same year, as part of the “Fete de la Musique” music festival, and many others…

 In 2003, he released his fourth album “Tanin el Tarab”, his first in CD format.

 In 2006, three of his songs were featured in the aforementioned compilation album “Bandaoura”, and he performed live at Virgin Megastores for the release event.

 He supposedly started work on another album in 2007.

 In 2008, he played Bob Shankleesh, the frontman of a fictional band by the name of Bob Shankleesh and the Orientalz, in the movie “Une Chanson Dans La Tête”. He also appears on the original soundtrack.

Between all of this he has composed and performed jingles and theme music for several TV shows and radio stations (including the “La Youmal” theme, which I had a thing for when I was younger. Remember when that show was kinda funny? Sigh…) 

-Sound: It’s said that he was the first Lebanese musician to sing Arabic lyrics to rock music. The FIRST they say! I can’t find anything that disproves that. He might as well be.

 What kind of Arabic lyrics you ask? Lyrics centered on anything from the civil war, to television, to the state of music these days in Lebanon, to cooking, to his bird Nasrudin. Nothing and noone is safe from his criticism, not even himself. He delivers these lyrics with a certain attitude and uses the right tones of voice in the right places. His songs just have this delightful absurdity about them that you can’t help but love.

 But these lyrics aren’t sung to just plain rock music. Munir fuses rock with jazz, blues, Latin, traditional Lebanese music, and others… Make the lyrics more abstract and throw in a violinist and you have yourself a psuedo-Mashrou3 Leila sound, a sound that someone first started playing in the 80s that only today people are praising, and not for HIS variety of it! I don’t know when Ghassan Rahbani started singing in Arabic, but even when he did, he has nothing on Khauli.

On album, he includes sound effects that kinda help you visualize what he’s singing about while the sound is playing, but mostly for humor. Also, brief vocal skits that accompany the sound effects. It’s like you have snippets of a comedy record or play in every song.

 In conclusion, Munir “Tanin el Tarab” Khauli is THE unsung hero of the Lebanese alternative music scene. He paved the way for a lot of today’s artists, even if none of us realize it, he started it all. Thank God that at 50 years old he’s still active-ish, and I hope I get to see him live some day.

 Godspeed ya Tanin el Tarab!

 -Links:

Official Website (a very good read with lots of media, even some free downloads): http://www.munirkhauli.net/index.htm

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/116625533

“Television” Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCLJVT2BMig&feature=related

“FM” and “Ma Kbeer 2illal Jamal” Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVPDLTCW3Q4

“Na3am” Live (on TV): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqzi47ZS4QU&feature=related

Munir as Bob Shankleesh in “Une Chanson Dans La Tete”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LUH8kJA3XQ

Album Review (+ DOWNLOAD): Fareeq el Utrush – “Fareeq el Utrush (Pre-album)”

DOWNLOAD: With permission from Fareeq el Utrush, here is “Fareeq el Utrush (Pre-album)” for your listening pleasure. But when the official one comes out, you’re on your own dudes: http://www.mediafire.com/file/niiznhdfjtz/Fareeq el Utrush.zip 

This was supposed to be the official Fareeq el Utrush self-titled album, but since this was recorded before Chyno joined the group, it would not have presented the band as they are today. So, currently, they are rerecording with Chyno. But instead of trashing this, they decided to share it with fans by giving it away at a couple events, giving us all a generous insight into their history, instead of just sweeping this under the carpet like some fluke of an outtake.

-The Look: Though not professionally distributed, this did come with a cover and an image on the disk. Omar Khoury is responsible for all the artwork here. The front cover is a drawing of Edd and John Imad Nasr with sort of faded images of themselves on top, along with the group’s logo which is a beautiful piece of Arabic typography if I do say so myself.

The interior is a drawing of a Beirut skyline with the album credits and track list. This was mixed and mastered by Fadi Tabbal by the way…

The back cover has the track list in that lovely Arabic typography used for the band’s name on the front.

The CD itself has part of that skyline picture on it in black and white.

-The Sound: This took Lebanese hip hop to places I hadn’t seen it go before. It’s an album that cherishes actual playing and using basic instruments (bass, piano, drums) as opposed to just sampling synthesized beats, but also isn’t afraid to show off with some fancy effects and noises, and to use some more uncommon instruments (saxophone, cello, pots and pans). Furthermore, what they have up on their myspace is very basic, it only shows you the more “natural” side of them, but here you get to see a more experimental side of them, playing with effects, noises, and samples.

1-”Moqaddima”: This is an acapella track with the noise of the Beirut streets as its background music. Edd sets out his plan of infiltrating all ears, making even the deaf hear what he has to say. He comes bearing a message that he feels the need to deliver. So he asks of you simply to listen. All of this set to the sounds of a bustling Beirut street.

2- “Demoqrati”: This track is the listener’s first introduction to L’Fareeq’s musical style. It features John’s funk-influenced bass playing, a sampled drumbeat, FZ’s beatboxed drums, which might make you think “ok, so they got a guy to beatbox for one song”, but listen on and you’ll see much more of him, Goo’s equally funky effected guitar playing, Fouad Zakka’s saxophone additions that succeed in jazzing things up a bit, and of course Edd’s expertly crafted lyrical arrows that never fail to hit their assigned targets, be they politicians, society, or anything else he feels like shedding some light of truth on. This track samples part of a speech by the politician Smair Gaegae where he is trying to identify a certain mysterious concept that can be found here, unable to name it. It’s called “democracy”, and what they’re implying is that the presence of this so-called “democracy” can hardly be felt here.

3- “Lawen”: This is one of my more favorite tracks. Edd raps of society and politics while Goo provides some faint guitar strumming. A percussive drumbeat comes in, and then disappears, leaving the very funky guitar and bass to do their thing, but a new beat comes in to join them, only to be briefly replaced by FZ’s vocal percussion and then return to join the bass and guitar, which is now at maximum funk levels, with the appropriate effects and everything. The track ends with the guitar playing off.

4- “Byin7aka”: I have heard two versions of this song before. The first is Edd’s solo version with DJ Lethal Skillz which appears on Lethal Skillz’s debut album “New World Disorder”, and the other is the Fareeq el Utrush version that features Chyno, live. The Lethat Skillz version relies heavily on piano, the Fareeq el Utrush with Chyno version is basically just guitar, bass, and beatboxing, live that is, but it could go anywhere on the album really. This version is different than that new live version. This is one of the songs on this record that isn’t afraid to be “abstract” through its use of noise. It starts out with some faint guitar coupled with an eerie reverb which is later joined by bass. While Edd raps, a drumbeat plays, with bass, and saxophone interrupting from time to time. The saxophone plays over the spatial ambience of the guitar. Edd spits his rhymes once again, this time with a more prominent saxophone. Eventually it all fades away…

 5- “Qatshe’”: This is a little interlude that is basically Rabih Sakr playing what appears to be buckets and some percussion. This foreshadows the methods to be used on the following track…

6- “Terikhna Bi Libnen”: This is a good one right here. It actually sounds “happy” while still delivering that serious message. It goes to show that even if you’re talking about politics or something grave, you can still sound friendly while doing it. It starts out with one of the most memorable bass riffs on the album, with some metallic percussion, that may in fact be pots or pans, played by Samer Sagheer interrupting here and there. Edd breaks into his rap on the instability of Lebanon with nothing but the bass and the now more complex kitchen percussion. Edd raps of the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli conflict. Some jazzy piano comes into play, played by Samer Sagheer as well. As Edd raps the chorus, the piano accompaniment takes a more ominous turn, and then a drum sample solidifies the percussion already playing. That all dissipates leaving only the piano and bass, which repeats that riff that started it all. Like the first verse, the bass plays the riff along with the percussion, while this time the piano additions appear earlier on and the drum sample of the chorus breaks into the verse this time along with the added percussion of a tambourine. Edd continues his verbal assault on this particular war mentioned earlier. The chorus repeats, now with every single element previously heard playing in unison, plus some jazzy saxophone. It all ends as the piano’s final notes echo and the hits of the tambourine fade away… Good production work, Mr.Nasr.

7- “Khabriyten”: It is ushered in with some noise, along with FZ’s beatboxing. A guitar tone repeats itself over and over, so does a hi-hat sound, and the bass, with a muffled grunt. All of this looping leads up to the introduction of a drum sample and saxophone tune, setting a very ominous mood, while that hi-hat loop lingers. On top of this audio collage, Edd does some storytelling. He talks of being stopped at a military checkpoint where he is questioned and asked for some papers. An odd looped noise fades in to interrupt this all, only to be interrupted itself by some Arabic samples that came out of nowhere; a man comments on how funny the situation is while another inquires as to what happened next. Edd continues his lyrical onslaught on the system and in the end, sarcastically dismisses the whole thing and suggests nobody even bother walking the streets at night in the first place. It concludes with that guitar tone, repeating on and on, backed by some crunchy noise, that saxophone tune, which then shifts into a brief segment of FZ beatboxing and the guitar improvising with some eerie reverb.

8- “Shou Kamish?”: I have mixed feelings about this one. I like the dissonance aspect in some songs, but I would have preferred it if it were a bit “cleaner”. More prominent drums, less of that background sample thing. Not all tracks have to be “Terikhna Bi Libnen” clones, but I would have liked this one in particular to be more “solid”. A man yells for Edd to get back to his place who he replies to with condescendingly saying “Ok baba”. A drumbeat can be heard building up as well some background noise of somekind. A monkey cries out, and the drums bust in along with the bass, as well as that faint background noise which sounds like a voice crying out. Edd raps on rap itself, recounting his early days writing his verses and his dedication to it today. He is joined by Fouad Zakka’s mood-setting clarinet while he raps the chorus, and even after it plays its main tune, it lingers on popping in and out (or is that the sax there?) with his lyrical progression. After he’s said all that needs to be said, it wraps the track up with some short improvisation that concludes with that background noise of a voice singing letting out its very last cry.

9- “Lawen (Marra Tenye’)”: This track is the little brother of the track “Lawen”. In my opinion, doing it “marra tenye’” wasn’t really necessary. It begins with some reverberating oral clicking and slurping with some guitar, and by guitar I mean running the pick on the tightest part of the strings, up on the headstock, to replicate a sort of musicbox sound. Bass joins in with a steady riff. Edd proceeds to rap the chorus from “Lawen”, which is followed by some lyrics exclusive to this track, so this isn’t a reprise, with faint voices hushing in the background and an effected guitar tune. A drumbeat emerges with an odd “forward-reverse-reverse” hi hat, later replicated with the aforementioned hushes. A guitar tune briefly comes into play but doesn’t stay long, returning the track to its previous format of that repetitive bass riff, the hushes, the drums, the musicbox guitar, and the effected guitar. The guitar freestyles once again and finishes off the track. All fades out…

10- “Qatshe’ 2″: The second in the “Qatshe’” trilogy. This one is of Samer Sagheer playing the drums.

11- “Sadis”: Similar feelings as the ones concerning “Shou Kamish?” It could have been more solid. A kung fu fight starts this off, along with some crunch noise, decimation I believe. A drum sample, which I really like, plays, coupled with a delicate little piano tune. This goes on pretty steadily for a while until all of this is abruptly interrupted by a horn sample I believe and some sudden percussion which is joined by what sounds like a siren which reveals itself to be a saxophone that proceeds to freestyle till the end of the song.

12- “Sabe3 Nawme’”: I love this track. It opens with an Arabic sample of a woman lamenting on someone’s unconscious state, detachment from the outside world, lack of interaction with anything, and absence of that lust for life. As a faint drum sample builds up, a variety of noises from saxophone beeps to static play while Edd can faintly be heard reciting his poetry, overlapping on himself. As the saxophone drones, it happens, the first appearance of an infectious piano tune that only teases by fading in then out, for now. The piano tune bursts back in alongside the drum sample with Edd rapping about escapism and detachment from reality with the saxophone joining in at points. Then the song takes a new direction. The Piano tune is retired and we’re left with the drum sample, a bass riff, and saxophone. As Edd continues to expand on the subject of retreating from this unpleasant reality to a literal dreamland, the saxophone improvises and wraps up the track. You can hear a clip of Edd asking why the sound is cutting. This may just foreshadow the next track…

13- “Qatshe’ Ma3 Kamal”: The third and final installment of the “Qatshe’” trilogy. It is basically a cellphone recording by Edd of a man by the name of Kamal Ghraizi singing some classical Arabic tarab. I’m being serious now, not sarcastic: sound quality could have been better. I know it’s a cellphone, but why not try to get it to be the same quality as “Moqaddima”? Raw, recorded on the streets, but clean and clear. I like to imagine this guy is a “street-person”, what I mean is, he doesn’t spend his days in an office, but instead maybe drives a cab or owns a small shop. If you think about it, this is the original definition of street poetry. They’re putting the traditional poetry of the past that people still recite on the streets today alongside this new poetry inspired by the streets of today to be recited on them, and that is what we refer to as Arabic rap. It’s a nice concept but it could have been executed better.

14- “Tzakkar Hal Iyyem”: This is a real masterpiece. It tackles an issue that not many Arabic rappers have given its significance and Fareeq el Utrush have proven themselves to me as a group that covers a wide variety of subjects. It starts off with a simple guitar tune by Goo with an equally simple bass-snare beat. Edd wants a beat that’s good. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just listenable. Someone laughs in the background. Hi-hat pops in and out along with a cymbal that you can just pick up on its slightest vibration. The mystery laugher hums and delivers a “louloulouloulouloulou”, followed by that cymbal that oh so percussive cymbal which leads into a segment of cello, played by Jana Simaan, reverse percussion, and reverberating voices. The drums start pounding and you can feel the depth. Tagging along with them is some Middle Eastern percussion, derbakke’ to be precise. And providing the main rhythm the bass riff that joins in. Edd raps of infidelity, men’s constant lack of satisfaction with what they have, and their insatiable appetite for something else. Lina Monzir melodiously sings in the background, creating this intoxicated trance effect. I can imagine walking in the streets late at night, my dizzy staggering matching the drumbeat, with the risky anticipation of an alluring prostitute greeting me at every alleyway in order to exploit the aforementioned masculine need for pleasure. Edd urges men to keep their lovers close and not to be led astray from the truth and purity of the love they have already been blessed with in exchange for cheap thrills. He gives his own philosophy on love and relates personal experiences. In the end, as the beat plays on and eventually fades out, the cello hums its way to the end of the record. Personally, those final cello notes gave me a sense of salvation, like the men saw the error of their ways and decided to stay true to their loved ones.

My analysis of Fareeq el Utrush: http://feelnotes.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/artist-analysis-fareeq-el-utrush/

7keeleh Vol II – (November 20, 2009)

7keeleh is an open-mic session organized by Taste Culture and hosted by Fareeq el Utrush, where anyone is welcome to present rap, poetry, or anything else, and some pretty big names also present their work (Fareeq el Utrush, Cristobal, RGB, etc…). It is held in the Amadeus pub of the Hotel Mozart in Hamra.

 This was the second edition of these sessions. I did attend the first, but did not see any of the performances since I had to leave early. Luckily, this time around, I was able to stay for the whole thing.

 -Before the Show: I was feeling a little sick, but decided I felt well enough to go out. I was bringing along three guests (two friends and one of their cousins) who wanted to meet graffiti artist Fish, of the Lebanese graffiti crew, REK Crew. He was asked to tag the word “7keeleh” on a canvas outside. The three of them have tagged some graffiti themselves, and I’m thinking about trying it myself, will get back to you on that… The first time me and my two friends met Fish was at our school, where for some mysterious yet awesome reason, the school got him and a couple other members of the crew to come over and show us how to tag, not on walls, but on canvases, nonetheless still pretty neat. And my friend’s cousin would be Gup. If the name sounds familiar, then you’ve probably seen the walls in Hamra lately.

 Went inside, greeted all the good folks there. The first time I came, they were giving out this free CD that contained music by local acts. I liked that CD a lot, one of the reasons is for which is because it introduced me to Toffar. This time, there was no compilation CD, but instead there was Fareeq el Utrush’s pre-album (which they also had for sale at their Basement gig), as in, the pre-Chyno versions of the tracks that will appear on the upcoming album, as in, the tracks on their myspace plus never before heard tracks. All of this for the price of: as much as you feel like. I had to take a cab home, so I felt like 1,000 L.L.

 So we decide to go talk to Fish. We step outside where there is a canvas hung up and spray cans and stuff and we say hi and that we met at our school and he recognizes us, and Gup from some other place.

 After some graffiti-chat, he began with the tag, first spraying on the overlapping outlines of the letters. This helps one choose what letters to put behind what letters and what letters to put on top of what letters. He then started coloring in some green sections at the bottom of each letter, and yellow in the rest.

 Meanwhile, inside, they were about to get the ball rolling, so I went back inside and let my friends watch Fish spray. I would go on to see them intermittently for a while then not at all.

 -The Show: I will try my best to recall the correct order and not to forget about anybody.

 Edd and Goo kicked it off with Edd rapping and Goo playing electric guitar.

 This was followed by a musician named Ashraf. Armed with his trusty oud, he played it and sang some traditional Arabic songs. I’m not a huge fan of this stuff, but I gave it a chance, because seeing Rabea Beirut was the first step of a journey. The destination would be making up for my lack of Arabization. It’s a long story, but in brief: When I hear something that is a blend of several genres, I have to have an idea of each genre on its own to see how faithful it is to both genres separately, in their pure forms. One of the more popular strategies being adopted here is mixing a modern genre (hip hop, rock, electronica, etc…) with traditional Arabic music. So, I know enough about most of the modern genres, but ironically, I am slightly alienated from traditional Arabic music. Thus, it is my duty to expand what little I currently know of the music of our forefathers, just so I don’t get to the point where I find myself groping in the dark. So you remember that thing I mentioned in the Rabea Beirut review about mentally improving music that I don’t find 100% satisfactory? Well this time, FZ saved me the trouble and did it for me. He started adding vocal percussion. He wasn’t holding a mic, just standing with the crowd watching, and everyone could hear his contribution. That man can do some loud clicks dude.  

A lady read a poem after that I believe. It was a tribute to a friend, and was quite beautiful.

 Following that was a rapper by the name of Fahrass. He said that he’d do this more “storyteller” style than “rapper” style, so he took out a cell phone and read his verses revolving around two girls that each faced certain hardships as children and met one another in the present, while FZ provided some of his mouth-sculpted sound replications. Concerning the cell phone factor, I would have done the same thing myself. Actually I might have messed up a little while reading, so yeah, it’s all cool.

 I believe after him followed a poet by the name of Tina Fish. She recited two poems. One was about these “jagals”, the stereotypical Lebanese males. I share her loathing for that particular social group, so I could relate. Her style was more spoken word than poetry, releasing a sentence one time, a single word the other. She mainly spoke in English but sprinkled some Arabic here and there. The second was a response to a photography contest called “Lakom Hamrakom Wa Li Hamra2i” where photographers are encouraged to take photos of what makes Hamra special to them. She wrote a poem. It covered almost all the ingredients that blend and clash to form Hamra, which I consider my spiritual home. No seriously, this lady is something else… major kudos!

 Following her were 3/5 of Fareeq el Utrush. Edd, Chyno, and FZ. They started off with their introduction routine where FZ beatboxes then starts announcing a soccer game that the band are playing in. It was actually longer than usual this time. This routine comes with rapping by Edd and Chyno of course. After that, he treated us to another one of his Fareeq el Utrush routines, this one I had only heard once and was eager to hear once again, it was the movie trailer one! He did the whole deep voice announcer bit (fun fact: that guy’s name is Don LaFontaine. Unfortunately, he passed away last year, sigh…), where he declared “in a world, where the music industry is dominated by artists like Haifa-”Wawa!”- One band, Fareeq el Utrush, here to save the day (eh, I still haven’t memorized it). Usually this would have been it, but this time it was a revised version, which included some movie trailer-musts such as, cast list and excerpts from the actual (well, hypothetical) movie!: “Starring Edouard Abbas as, Edd”, then Edd said something, a line of his from the “movie”. “Nasser Al Shorbaji as, Chyno”, he said something that sounded like he was warning people not to mess with him. “John Imad Nasr, who isn’t here right now…”.”And Fayez Zouheiry as *vocal scratch vocal scratch* FZ!”. I don’t know how it ended, but I loved this version. Chances are the guys will read this, so I’d like to take a few moments to say: RECORD. IT. Including actual sound effects. Ooh ooh! Album intro! Album intro! ALBUM. INTRO.

 They performed some songs sans bass which included “Ana 7abib Balade’” and “Bteghlawa Ma3 L’Zikra”, as well as some other stuff. Some of the songs mentioned were performed later on, but I’m just putting it out there…

 After that, if I remember correctly, FZ beatboxed with Karim Mallak, another beatboxer, whose name I forget, but they were good together. They did a medley of songs similar to the beatbox routine that you’ve probably seen already on the web by that French-Japanese fellow on the French version of “American Idol”, as in “Beat it”, “Yeah”, etc…

 L’Fareeq went back on and performed one of the aforementioned songs.

 After them, Chyno performed some acapella rap in English.

 Following that was some more spoken word, this time by Becky Katz. She read two poems. The first was called “The Binary Serpent”. In it, she talked about a certain incident where she fell victim to social prejudice and gave us some philosophical insights, well Tina Fish did too, but Becky’s were more textbooky. She was briefly heckled by someone asking her to “read faster” whom she replied to with “leave faster”, and that was met with applause… oh those precious “bakh3a” moments…  She then read an untitled poem, a love poem dedicated to her boyfriend.

 This was followed by some Arabic rap by rapper Ramcess, which was pretty tight actually.

 Then Yassine from I-Voice also delivered some Arapic rap with FZ beatboxing and acapella too.

 I think there were a couple more rappers after that…

 That’s when it happened. FZ went on a killing spree. He did a nice kung fu movie style skit, then some more beatboxing with the beatboxer he performed with earlier that night, but then he shocked everyone by: beatboxing, and speaking, at the same time… At first they were skeptical, but he did it again slower, singing that line “if your mother ooonly knewww”. Mind boggling. As if he didn’t his beatbox prowess wasn’t established by then, he topped it all off by beatboxing and playing a pipa at the same time. The pipa in question is a little wind instrument that Edd brought FZ back all the way from Thailand. I’ve seen a guy play flute while beatboxing on the web, so seeing something similar live was nice.

 Two poets finished the night off…

 -After the Show: That was a pretty good batch of talent I’d say. Oh and by the way, this spans for like… 2 hours. While there, if not for the occasional smoking induced coughs (too much smoking going on), I had no idea I was even sick. It’s the healing power of music… It was inspiring too, seeing average people present their work, which turns out to be awesome. I might even present something myself if I have time to work on it and practice… But overall, this is a good concept and I hope it keeps going strong and people keep showing up and sharing their talents.

 -Photos:

*Personal: http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=350494&id=842365214

 -Videos:

*Personal: I have a video of FZ rocking that pipa. To be posted as soon as I can upload it.

-Links:

Tatse Culture Blog: http://tastekulcha.blogspot.com/

International Day of Peace (September 27, 2009)

Originally, the International Day of Peace event, organized by the Permanent Peace Movement, was to be held on the 21st of September, but due to some unpredictable rain, it was rescheduled to the 27th.

 This would be an event for the whole family (including children) that would include a concert come nighttime. Several relatively unknown groups, as well as one theater group, were to perform, but one group was more than known to me, and that was Fareeq el Utrush. One of the lesser known groups that I was eager to check out were an enigmatic twin-sister Arabic-acoustic duo by the name of ShaBa, who made their debut during the 2009 Fete de la Musique. I had found their myspace through a message sent by Mashrou3 Leila, who are friends of theirs, to members of their group. I’ll do a full analysis in the future, but for now what I will say about them is that from their myspace I concluded that Shaden Fakih, the vocalist of the duo, sings of edgy social issues in Arabic to simple acoustic guitar tunes played by Bane Fakih, the guitarist of the duo. Both girls are about my age (17), so the fact that they are part of the younger generation of groups, the class of groups that I would fall into if I were to play in a band, was appealing, like: “Hey look, people my age DO have something to offer the scene!”.  

 -Before the Show: This particular show took place in Jesuit Garden (L’Jnayne’ L’Yasou3iyye) in Ashrafieh. It was hard to find. They could have tried securing a more well known location. For a while, even Fareeq el Utrush themselves were confused location-wise…

 I arrived to find a stage set up, with chairs and stuff, and filling up most of those chairs were kids (well some were standing on them, others chasing each other around them, but you get the idea). This was where the weirdness began. I didn’t imagine this kind of crowd honestly. It was basically kids, their parents/ grandparents, and a couple random people. Not really the “undergrounders” I had gotten used to being around for these kinds of events.

 -The Show: After a lot of waiting and a lack of artists showing up on schedule, one of the event organizers, Shant Kabakian, asked the only band that was there at the moment, an obscure band called Body Jam to, well, jam, to stall. So they did, and it wasn’t too bad. After them, some guy who competed in the show “Superstar” sang. He sang for a while, average Arabic tarab stuff. Following that, an improptu DJ set for the purpose of stalling. The bass was WAY too powerful, painfully powerful, and I’m talking physically now. Children danced, old people danced, they had nothing better to do. Children were jumping onto the stage and an old dude was assigned to shoo them away.  

 Just then, I spotted Edd of Fareeq el Utrush. The others shortly followed. We chatted for a while. Eventually, I located Shaden Fakih, and introduced myself for the first time, but unfortunately did not get the chance to meet her sibling that night.

 I hung out with the Fareeq el Utrush dudes while the theater group Firqat el Dafade3 presented a political satirical performance in the style of “Basmet Il Watan”. I wasn’t too impressed with it, but it passed.

 Following that were ShaBa, who were performing with the slogan “Make Love Not War”. Now ShaBa’s fans, they were mostly close friends of theirs. I think I was among the few people who wanted to genuinely see them, and not just do so as a polite gesture. But regardless, their fans were very excited. They clapped along vigorously and even sang along to the songs. This was rare. Usually people, including myself, are all “silent-appreciation” accompanied by foot-tapping/ head-nodding/ rhythmic shuffling from side to side. But their fans threw these unwritten rules of concert-going out the window and just went wild, which was kinda weird to me, but still cool.

 Kids were jumping onto the sides of the stage, and the aforementioned old dude was doing his job of keeping them off, both him and them disrupting the experience actually.

 They performed all four of their songs. During one song the mic got all feedbacky so they lightheartedly started over again. The kids thought they were SOOO witty and edgy when they started repeating “khazze2ni ya deek” hinting at a “hidden” innuendo. It’s good that they didn’t get all defeated by that and just brushed it off. Now usually, well, the one other time they performed and this one, the band consists of the two sisters, Shaden on vocals and Bane on acoustic guitar, but this was the first time that they are joined by two friends of theirs, Aya Attar on keyboard and  Rola Najjar on electric guitar. The duo is known as Nattar. Together they played a new song and this lineup showed me that they are still a band in progress, still in that stage of experimenting with different instruments to fill in gaps. Due to their lack of bass, I forgot about the whole “painful bass” issue that I was suffering from earlier that night. For some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to hand out candles to the kids, and the girls were briefly pelted with candles by the unappreciative little rascals, nothing catastrophic, just an inconvenience for them. They also succeed in brushing that off, so bravo! At the end they were presented an award by some lady, so that was nice.

 Following them were Fareeq el Utrush who performed the usual set of songs. They were very good, but when you see a band live that many times, you start getting bored of hearing the same songs. But, it’s important to keep in mind that even though you’ve already seen these songs played live, there are others that haven’t yet, so you just have to tolerate that. That went by quick, and the painful bass issue came back to haunt me, and left me with ringing ears. Dude who rigged up the sound system, I am a proverbial “utrush” and have no desire to become an actual one…

After they were done, they too were presented with an award.

 -After the Show: Following them were rappers ZeineDin and Venus followed by Body Jam, but I had to leave. This show was kind of ruined by the crowd and the bad sound setup.

 -Photos:

*Personal: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133924848778&index=1#/album.php?aid=325338&id=842365214

 -Videos:

*Personal:

ShaBa & Nattar – “Shiftak Laziz”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1RhMlsZ77I

I have a video of “Alla Bi 7ebba” that I will upload when I can.

PirateBeirut: Arrr You Fucking Kidding Me?

Recently, a website by the name of PirateBeirut (a play on the name of the infamous file sharing website The Pirate Bay) has come into my attention and I feel like something must be said about it.

 According to its “About” page:

• What is PirateBeirut?

PirateBeirut is a Lebanese music weblog that aims to salvage and pep up the underground independent music scene in Lebanon. We focus both on the under-promoted bands that have gone unnoticed as well as the struggling upcoming ones that seek exposure.

• Why?

Consumers hate scarcity. But you and I know that monopolists love scarcity. When consumers have fewer choices, a monopoly thrives. – Seth Godin.

The music industry is overflowed with low-quality music, especially in Lebanon where “eminent” artists are determined by how much flesh they show in their music videos; This scarcity imposed by the monopolists (those with the fat bank accounts) is leaving a lot of artists with actual talent starving in the dark. We’re here to give you a choice that the Lebanese music industry has taken away from you. We’re here to bring down the monopoly once and for all.

• But aren’t you ripping the artists off?

That, in our opinion, is the naïve approach at seeing things. We’re actually promoting them by distributing their work and making everything more accessible. A direct link between the artist and the consumer is created and we’re confident that this will get more people to go to concerts and see live performances.

• I would like to help out! Do you guys accept donations?

Great! Start by checking out the Spread PB section. We’re working on producing some merchandise (t-shirts, stickers, etcetera) that will help us fund this project, we’ll inform you as soon as they’re ready.

• Who are you guys? How can I reach you? I want in!

We are anonymous. Don’t worry, we’ll reach you “

Ok, a point by point analysis:

-”…a Lebanese music weblog “: So where’s the Nancy Ajram section? Just say it: “A Lebanese alternative music weblog”, since all the artists whose material is hosted are from the underground scene. Now that we have established that, we can trace any effect this has on them back here. We have just located our vic…err, targets.

-”The music industry… once and for all”: The cause is noble but they’re going about it all wrong. Yes, the music industry is overflowed with low-quality music. Yes, in Lebanon, “eminent” artists are determined by how much flesh they show in their music videos. And yes, this scarcity imposed by the monopolists (those with the fat bank accounts) is leaving a lot of artists with actual talent starving in the dark. 100% true. But this is not the way to give people a choice, because you see you are giving choice to some and taking it away from others.

You see, the way to give people a choice is by guiding them to the light. You must inform them, enlighten them, and direct their attention to certain websites for example like a myspace, a facebook group or page, a youtube account, or even an official website, where the artists themselves have set up their own promotion tactics such as putting up some tracks for streaming or even download or uploading videos. You must say to the people “hey check out this band’s myspace (for example), you can listen to a couple of tracks they put up”. Let the artists upload their own selected material and then all you should do is bring it into the public eye.

But what you are doing is not helping the artists promote THEMselves, you are promoting them YOURselves. You are taking the promotion into your own hands, treating the music like it is your own work, like you yourself were the artist. No. If you want to upload entire albums, or even just one song, at least get the consent of the artists. The artists have their own consent (obviously) when they upload certain tracks to their myspace pages or facebook pages or whatever, and when they put up tracks for free download, they are giving people their consent to download them and share them however they see fit. But they must decide what they want shared, what they want floating out there and what they want to just be listened to online, or on the record. Let the artists promote themselves, and you just bring them to people’s attention. Don’t do the promoting for them.

-”We’re actually promoting them by distributing their work and making everything more accessible”: There, you yourselves admit it.

- “A direct link between the artist and the consumer is created”: You say that like the underground artists are these obscure idols, while in fact THEY THEMSELVES link themselves to the consumers by setting up myspace pages, facebook pages and groups, youtube accounts, you name it. They keep us informed with the latest news and let us know when they have a show coming up or when they are featured in a news article or when they will be appearing on TV. We are already quite in touch with them, and even if their entire body of work is not accessible for us to download, they let us know just enough about them and their music to get us to buy the album they labored so hard to create, not because we have no other choice, but out of our own will and dedication to them. We’re not slaves to them or their “corporate masters” such as Incognito, Toj Kil Shi, Chich Prod, Mooz Records, or the dreaded “unsigned” (the greediest of the lot). You’re basically stealing from the poor dude. We actually WANT to give them our hard earned money to show our gratitude for their unique talent and dedication, not to mention help them make a decent living! We’re not really being opressed by these underground artists. Pirate that Rotana bullshit, they deserve that, but what the alternative artists deserve is to rake in whatever dough they manage to make from album sales.

-”…we’re confident that this will get more people to go to concerts and see live performances.”: Well, listening to/ downloading tracks online DOES get more people to go to concerts and see live performances, but for God’s sake, let the artists themselves worry about that. You’re free to help them out with doing that, but leave it to them, please.

But don’t get me wrong, there is some good that comes out of this, some little unintentional good, and that is: it makes these tracks available.

This acts like an online archive. These days, some CDs are going out of print and the copies currently in stores are among the last. This is a very real issue. Aks’ser’s first two independently released albums have gone out of print, and so have SoapKills’ first independently released album and their one and only live album. This way, when some of the albums available for download on there go out of print, they’ll always be available to the public. Some of those are still available for purchase online however. When an album is gone forever, download it for free by all means. But when it’s still available, there is no good reason why you shouldn’t just buy a copy. And a random thought, but ironically, one of the reasons that albums go out of print is because of a lack of financial income to the distributors or artists, which could be due to, oh I don’t know, piracy, for example?

For people abroad, these albums are not so easily available, so this website is a decent excuse for them to download.

-In conclusion: PirateBeirut, you have good intentions, but your method of execution is flawed. You are acting like you are the artist, trying to promote yourself by distributing your own tracks, while in reality you are not the artists nor do you have their consent. Let them do their own promotion. Don’t do the promotion for them. Help them out by informing people on them and their websites and stuff. This will only lead to the public knowing about these artists but noone actually buying the albums, and then what? What reason will artists have to record albums? We must stay faithful to them and support them both emotionally and financially.

In one sentence: Spread the WORD, not the TRACKS.

Though I myself have been tempted to download a certain album (I won’t say which because I’d only be giving you ideas), I advise everyone to refrain from downloading anything  from the site because it’s really misguided in what it’s doing and using it would only encourage its further development.

In general, I primarily buy physical but I am a big fan of downloading if the CD is international and I can’t find it in stores here, and I must admit, I have given some friends a complete local album or two to introduce them to these artists, and if that little action leads to the whole scene’s demise I apologize (I was young…), but when you do it on the internet the impact is much greater, due to a much larger audience. 

I promise to continue informing you on the alternative scene using my own words and directing you to its artists’ own promotional locations on the web.

Here is the website (look but don’t touch children, or right click “save as” for that matter!): http://piratebeirut.com/

Here is the future of the scene if this keeps going on: http://b7.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01222/76/94/1222164967_l.jpg

Rabea Beirut – Live @ Babel Theater (November 12, 2009)

This band is shrouded in mystery, to me at least. I’ll do a mini analysis right here because I’ll probably never get around to making a whole one.

All I know about them is from their profile on the Eka3 website which says that they have been active here since 2004 and have played several shows and participated in various festivals, including abroad. They have one album out called “Laka Anta” released through Eka3 and there are two sample tracks available for streaming which are “Laka Anta” and “Ya Abana” that pretty much give you an idea of what their sound is supposed to be: a delicate blend of traditional Arabic music with jazz and classical music.

It’s been done before, but I wanted to expose myself to more “natural” things, since I usually tend to be attracted to more “electric” genres, like rock, electronic, or hip hop.  I am more partial to the amplified, the distorted, the reverberating-delayed-flanger affected, but I do have a little soft spot for the pure, the natural, the unpolished as well, so this was a chance to lose my traditional-music-virginity.

 -Before the Show: Although the album has been in stores for I don’t know how long, this was the launch concert, and this was also the first time that the songs on this album would be presented live. It took place at Babel Theater in Hamra, from 8:30-ish till 9:30-ish, making this the first performance I see in an actual theater, and that meant good sound and lighting; otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a theater then would it? This was also the earliest performance I have ever been to. The venue and time both gave the air of this being something quite formal, which was a welcome change from the usual quaint restaurant and open-area shows.

 This time around, I was accompanied by a friend, whose arrival, albeit late, was greatly appreciated. But lucky for us, when they said 8:30, they meant 8:40…

 There was a table set up by Eka3 with an assortment of its CDs, including the band’s own debut album, available for sale. I decided to hit it on the way out…

 -The Show: The lights went down and two musicians walked onto the stage, which was quite well lit, so Babel had proved itself light-wise. One sat behind an electric piano, and he was Khaled Soubeih, the pianist and main composer of the group, the other lay a kanun across his lap, and he was Ghassan Sahhab, the kanun player of the group. They performed a piece for piano and kanun entitled “Salamat”, the opening track on their album. I know I tend to overhype certain elements sometimes, but: the sound was superb. The musicians were extremely well prepared and neither fumbled. I had seen pianos several times in my time, but this was one of the few times that I saw a kanun in person, so I kept my eye on the peculiar instrument, well, peculiar to me at least.

 Following that intro, the rest of the musicians came onstage little by little, some before others, some coming then leaving, and they comprised of the vocalist Nadine Hassan, the percussionist Ahmad El Khatib, the cellist Bridgette Muller, the buzuk (or was that a oud?) player Tamer Abou Ghazala, the clarinet player Youssef El Fahel, and one of my favorite additions to the group, the bassist (the electric bassist! e-lec-tric!) Bashar Farran. Whenever one came out they were raucously applauded by friends and family that were there to support them. I personally applauded them for showing up… Everyone but Bashar and Youssef was onstage for a song with vocals provided by Nadine and they performed their own version of some classic Arabic song, rearranged for them by Khaled, who played his piano parts effortlessly and perfectly. Same goes for Ghassan. Nadine’s voice was very powerful and she was clearly very well-trained. Though she wasn’t dancing, her hand gestures conveyed the emotion being translated through her voice. The cello also stood out to me. Apart from being an instrument I don’t see that often, it was not muffled, but on the contrary made its presence evident with deep drones and light hums. Ahmad was on the tambourine and he really knew what he was doing. I was amazed with the variety of phrases that this minimal little percussion instrument could utter with the right taps in the right places. Tamer also added convenient oud/buzuk (I honestly am not sure what he was playing) touches.

 One or two instrumental pieces followed. They too were reworkings of Arab classics.  I’m not familiar with the original versions of the pieces, so I can’t really compare between the originals and their takes on them, but regardless of how faithful to the originals they were, they were sure played well.

 Following that was a piece called “Ila Ayn?”. I remember the name because it was for that piece that the electric bass that was standing upright on its stand, and standing out to me as the most modern instrument onstage, was picked up by Bashar, the bassist. The words that best describe my reaction to that was “oh hell yeah”. Also joining in was Youssef on clarinet. The bass added that modern touch that was supposed to distinguish their sound, and so did the clarinet with its jazzy accompaniments. Also noteworthy was Ahmad playing on an odd box-like percussion instrument, which I had seen being used before at a Fareeq el Utrush gig. It sounded more like a drum set than the tambourine, so yes, the variety was definitely there.

 Some more reworked classics followed, the clarinet disappearing till the end of the show and bass joining in on some pieces. Ahmad would play the box-like instrument along with the tambourine in the same song.

 After those were over with, they presented their own original pieces which included “Ya Abana” and “Laka Anta” among a few others. It was in their own original pieces that I saw the modern flavor in the arrangements. During “Laka Anta”, Nadine made the one and only fumble in the entire presentation, missing a word in the lyrics, but it didn’t matter because the words tha she did sing were belted out with passion and intensity. I liked the cello in that particular piece.

 -After the Show: With that, they concluded their performance. They showed their gratitude and thanked all who came, Eka3, and all who helped make the album possible.

 On the way out, I bought myself a copy of their album, as well as a copy of the debut album of the Jordanian Arabic rock trio, Jadal, “Arabic Rocks, since I had heard them online prior and decided on giving them a chance. If they were good enough to open for Mashrou3 Leila at The Basement, then they’re good enough for me. Their album was good and Rabea Beirut’s album showed me just how accurately they presented their work, chillingly identical to the album tracks except for some variations here and there.

Although not a rock concert or hip hop show, this was one of, if not, the best performance I have witnessed. The lights were good, the sound was good, but the band wasn’t good, they were excellent.  

This was my first venture into “natural” music and I would say it was a successful one, though at certain points I did get the desire to add a drumbeat here, an electric guitar riff there, some synth noise in the background. I have a tendency to try and mentally improve music that is not 100% satisfactory to me. I enjoyed them as is, but I’d like to see them collaborate with some alternative artist, just to see what manner of genre fusion that spawns.

 Here is their profile on Eka3: http://www.eka3productions.com/index.php/component/option,com_musicbox/Itemid,112/catid,25/id,12/task,viewAuth/

For news and information on Eka3 artists and events:

-Official Website: http://www.eka3productions.com/

-Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174115849798#/eka3productions?ref=ts

The Road to Kfifan: The Return! (September 24, 2009)

This was the second incarnation of Road to Kfifan, which was due to take place September 19 in Sporting Club, but was delayed due to rain. Rayess Bek, who has not performed here quite the long time, was to make a spectacular comeback, but the weather made that impossible. It was still taking place in Sporting club, but to make up for his absence, three, not one, but three new acts were brought in. There was Ziad Nawfal, A.K.A DJ Panic, DJing, Serge Yared of The Incompetents and the pianist Vladimir Kurumilian performing reworked versions of Incompetents songs for guitar and piano, and the hip hop band, Fareeq el Utrush, who I was supposed to see at an event earlier that Monday which was also delayed by the rain, so I was glad I would be seeing them twice in one week. Though in the end, no amount of artists could replace Rayess Bek.

 -Before the Show: The weather was great, not a cloud in the sky. I did some socializing while Ziad Nawfal DJed. There were a lot of photographers and cameramen, the most I have ever seen at a show actually.

 -The Show: After a while, Serge Yared and Vladimir Kurumilian took to the stage. They played versions of Incompetents songs reworked for guitar and piano. They played some songs from “More Songs from the Victorious City” and also a couple new ones. Ziad Nawfal was there to do his spoken word bit himself this time for “The Damned Don’t Cry”. One song that stood out was “Monster Song” which I was seeing live for the first time. It was played on guitar, piano, and a toy piano with a crappy little microphone, so that was something unexpected.

 More DJing by Ziad followed. Later on, it was time for the Baalbak Project or Mashrou3 Baalbak to go on which is a group consisting of Zeid Hamdan, Hiba El Mansouri, RGB, and Miles Jay. Miles Jay could not make it, since he had prior plans to play with another mashrou3. Mashrou3 Leila, in Saida. So Zeid and Hiba took the stage at performed their own songs, no SoapKills covers. Zeid was operating his machines and playing guitar. As I mentioned, there was many a cameraman and photographer. People were mostly watching from a distance. After that, RGB joined in but before he started performing, he called for people to gather in front of the stage, and so they did, that little area soon became quite crowded, and I swear, it stayed that way till I left. RGB needs an active audience. He performed two of his songs with Zeid, “Ma3na L’Rap” and “Awwast Il Sherif”. Beats were played on the laptop while Zeid played guitar along to them. Hiba joined on “Awwast Il Sherif”. The special thing about this performance was that the first time I heard these songs live they were played acoustic (Crate Sessions), then they were played electric, but just with guitar, bass, and drums (Three Little Pigs), and now this was electric with sound effects and everything. I heard these songs performed in ascending fidelity.

 DJ Panic gave us all an interlude while Katibe 5 prepped themselves. Katibe 5 was not one of the groups I was looking forward to seeing, but still I wanted to check them out. They were very energetic, I’ll give them that, but I didn’t really find that “hook”. The fact that they rapped to prerecorded tracks was a bit of a turn off for me.

 Ziad bridged the gap between them and the next act, Fareeq el Utrush. This show marked the debut/ return of their guitarist Ghassan Khayyat. The set they played was similar to that they played in Zico House, nothing new, though the presence of guitar this time around did mix things up a bit (in a good way). As usual, all the members were very energetic and lively, though Ghassan could have loosened up a little.

 -After the Show: That was it. There was Trash Inc., Underdolls, and Jade after that but was not interested in them. I said my goodbyes, knowing that I would see Fareeq el Utrush once again that Sunday, and made haste.

 -Photos:

*Personal: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=323946&id=842365214

 *Other: Tanya Traboulsi:

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs215.snc1/8220_288189230108_602430108_8916276_8143044_n.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs235.snc1/8220_287744450108_602430108_8907494_1255734_n.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs235.snc1/8220_287744455108_602430108_8907495_4441130_n.jpg

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=8907495&id=602430108#/photo.php?pid=8921487&id=602430108

 -Videos:

*Personal: I have a video of Fareeq el Utrush that I will edit in when I get to upload it.

*Other:  Fareeq el Utrush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5Bi8-4tOU

Album Review: SoapKills – “Cheftak”

Today I am reviewing SoapKills’ second album to be released through Incognito, “Cheftak”. Released in 2002, it was one of the albums of the earlier days of the scene, and thus helped lead the way and helped shape the artists to come.

 -The Look: The front cover is a very visually appealing one. It is reminiscent of classic Arabic movie posters. It is an illustration actually, done on the computer. I know this for a fact because I’ve seen the photo that was used as source material. It does start looking unrealistic in some tiny areas, but as a complete piece of work, it is very well done.

 On the opposite side of this card, the credits and track list, written in gray, on top of white. One of the things that caught my eye was the very authentic-looking stamp that says “جديد”, which is Arabic for “new”, the word that sells. The thing is, it looks like it was hand-stamped, as you might be able to tell from its faded look, and very nostalgic of the past. It says “new”, in quite the antiquated fashion…

 The CD itself is just plain red, with the same album title logo as on the front but this time in white, along with a track list.

 Behind the CD, plain red with the album title in a slightly different font colored black with white outline/ shadow. I am a big fan of the red-black-white combo.

 The back cover is plain red, once again, with the track list, but in black on the right is the track list with the standard Latin alphabet track names, while in white a little to the left is one where the tracks are all written in Arabic. The Arabic word are written in their true forms as well as the rest of the, non-Arabic, track names and the results are Arabizations of English words that would baffle an Arabic reader. I find an appeal in this because I am a big fan of cross-lingual wordplay, writing English words in Arabic letters, popping an English letter into an Arabic word (رسPمد), I dunno, just being creative with letters. I find this a creative use of Arabic letters. Also, credits are printed once again.

 -The Sound: This record covers quite a lot of ground. It is not just an electronic album per se. There are acoustic guitar pieces, harmonica tunes, hip hoppy drums, hypnotic nay, etc… You’d have to be crazy not to label it “alternative”. Zeid Hamdan had outdone himself sound-wise and so did all who contributed. All songs are sung by Yasmine Hamdan in Arabic. The lyrics are well-written, catchy, and heartfelt. They always take me “there”, “there” being wherever they want me to go, whatever emotion I need to feel.

 No offense to Yasmine, and her breathtaking vocals, but I’d like to give the music here some extra attention because Zeid really outdid himself on this one.

 -”Aranis”: Starts out with an acoustic guitar tune while Yasmine sings of corn cobs, paint, and watermelons, both delivered in a soothing manner. It then breaks into this muffled mechanical sounding beat that gradually escalates in volume with Yasmine singing lyrics from the song “Koullondif” over it, later echoing as a drumbeat joins in. It ends with her going back to the first verse of the song, this time acapella, followed by the beat playing one last time before fading away. I like how the beat is all chopped up, composed of broken samples; great opener.

 - “Cheftak”: The title track of this album. It opens to a harmonica tune and minor percussion. Though it is joined by some occasional bass and the harmonica tune has an effect added to it. This segment does go on for a bit too long. It could have been shorter. Then, a completely different beat with drums and some synth sound I can’t put my finger on. The harmonica bit is reused but with some synth (vibraphone? music box?) additions. The second beat plays again, now with Yasmine singing the lyrics, the most memorable of which being the Arabic wordplay masterpiece: “sheftak 3a shifta, shiftak kashaftak”. The synth that was added to the harmonica bit earlier takes the stage once again, this time with this beat. Then an exquisite swap takes place. The drums of the second beat play but with the harmonica tune and they fit like a glove, plus some very sad organ additions appear while Yasmine sings the lyrics, exposing her significant other for his betrayal and lamenting on the situation. The atmosphere here to me is that of a soap opera (pun not intended). The music box synth makes one last appearance with the aforementioned drumbeat. This track has so many pieces that are interchanged with one another. It is very well crafted, and so are the lyrics.

 -”Tango”: This track is a reworking of the song “Tango El Amal” by Nour El Hoda. It starts out with a classic Arabic sample that fades in and out (LPF effect?); a staple of Zeid’s style. A mystical yet distinctly Middle Eastern atmosphere is created. Yasmine sings the original lyrics in formal Arabic, which makes them all that more poetic. While she delivers them, a string section sample plays in the background. As she finishes off that last line, a muffled voice can be heard which is then accompanied by another string sample. This is interrupted by a drumbeat, but it is not an ordinary drumbeat, as it is accompanied by a scratchy synth sound. The drums go silent for a second then burst back in more as an in-your-face-hip hop breakbeat! More of that classical Arabic sampling is utilized for extra percussion. The drums go all “drum n’bass” with the voice heard earlier reappearing with the string sample, then shifting back to breakbeat, then finishing off with just the string samples and the voice. This song is definitely a must hear for Zeid fans.

 -”Kazdoura”: A simply beautiful track where Yasmine really shines. It starts out with an acoustic guitar tune accompanied by a synth sound. Yasmine sings the lyrics so purely. She wants her lover to make her breakfast, but it’s far from a nagging command, and more like a playfully humble request that plays off the love between the two. These are requests, not commands. Requests that may or may not be satisfied, but are given with an air of relaxation, knowing with a certainty that they will be satisfied, not because of her loved one’s obligation to serve her, but because of love itself. These are two people who are truly aware of their love for one another. Before her craving for chick peas, hommus, she says to her lover that he looks cute. This isn’t an attempt at sweet talking him. She doesn’t say that expecting something in return, but simply, just blurts it out, out of overflowing passion. She requests for them to talk about each other’s dreams, him letting her sleep, letting her rest, and she professes her adoration for him. The acoustic guitar tune and synth that kicked off the song are played joined by a drumbeat that fades in and out. The beat plays, guitar, synth, and breakbeat. She wants him to feed her, she wants to be with him, in his house, on his bed, and wants him to hold her in his arms. The declaration of love is evident. Over the beat, her requests echo. Suddenly, a robot starts babbling some unintelligible electro language, which turns out to be Arabic. The beat is nice, but here Yasmine is the main attraction with her sensual delivery of the very honest, very passionate lyrics.

 -”Marcoslow”: This is an instrumental. It starts out with this tune played on a Middle Eastern string instrument whose name I am not sure of, accompanied by intermittent percussion samples. More percussion is layered on top, and bass joins in, then drums top the beat off. The drums then shift into a slightly different beat and a classic Arabic string sample plays. It echoes to classic Arabic movies, just like the album cover. The beat returns and the string samples are reintroduced but sliced up, and thus this piece ends. It’s nice but not too spectacular.

 -”Wadih”: This one starts out with a drumbeat and some synth bass interrupted by an occasional noise, reminiscent of that of an electric guitar, probably synthesized. Other noises also play, which is nice to hear, because noise is part of electronic music that I enjoy. As this beat with intermittent dissonance goes on, a string sample plays, and along with that Yasmine starts singing the lyrics. The drums shift a bit, but other than that the rest has already been heard previously in the song. Not really one of my favorites, though it does have some lyrics that stand out.

 -”Dub4me”: This instrumental speaks for itself. It starts out with this sound that I cannot quite specify, but it makes me feel like I’m being sucked into the music, and it ends with this harp melody. It loops several times, until the track’s beginning is heralded by one of Zeid’s classic Arabic samples. A drumbeat plays, with a flute/nay accompanying with a mesmerizing tune, all on top of a loop from that sample that laid right before the drumbeats ushered the track in. Call me crazy, but at this point, I am reminded of Beirut. The fantastic and elaborative nay playing with the constantly looping monotone of the Arabic strings is reminiscent of the contradiction of contradictory nature of Beirut life, the contradiction between the magnificent and the mundane. All of the aforementioned elements are gone now except for the drumbeat, and instead now there is guitar strumming, with muting, a bit like in ska or reggae, another staple of Zeid’s sound. They give me the feeling of some kind of “wrong”; action that is forced perhaps. One working a job he despises, or one having to break the law to make a living. Those are just examples, but this guitar tune brings the uglier aspects of the society to mind. After that, the sound heard at the very beginning of the song, the one that ends with a harp tune, is played, leading to the looping of the guitar part, this time along with the strings. After these two parts repeating one more time, the previous nay/ string part plays once again, this time with the guitar, then the guitar on it’s own (with drums and the overlooked bass that is), then with the strings joining in, and it all ends with that sound that sucked you in, spitting you back out with that harp tune as your last memory of that experience. I really like this piece. As I said, I feel the city of Beirut in this; another great Zeid-solo track. Apparently, this track was so good that the Lebanese Arabic rapper Rayess Bek wanted to use it for a song, and that song was “Choufou 7alone”. You might that the lyrics he added to the music influenced my interpretation of it, but I swear, I listened to the music sans lyrics. I talks about the hardships of Beirut life basically. The stratification, the injustice, the lack of alternative musical talent, etc… Nice!

 -”Rnbullshit”: The third instrumental on the record starts out with a chopped up percussion beat with synth scratch noises that is soon joined by a drumbeat. It plays around with that percussion sample it had looping in the beginning. The track takes a turn toward the electronic. Various synth sounds are utilized and so is the phaser effect, if I’m not mistaken. The percussion sample then comes back into play, along with the synth from the previous section. New beats are formed. It’s a tolerable track, but not really up there for me with “Cheftak”, “Kazdoura”, and “Tango”.

Overall, both Hamdans gave it their all!

Show Review: Halloween Horror Disco Extravaganza @ Walimat Wardeh

I know I know, I’m breaking the chronological order, but this show is still fresh and sizzling!

 This was a Halloween party where there would be DJing by DJ Basile and DJ Margot and live music by The Incompetents and Scrambled Eggs. There would also be some VJ’ing done during the musical performances by Rachel Tabet and Ramzi Hibri.

 -Before the Show: At first I took the event’s proclamation of “DISGUISE IS A MUST” lightheartedly, but I later discovered that indeed it is quite mandatory. So the Wednesday of that week I got to work on my costume. Since I knew the type of crowd that was supposed to be at this thing, I chose something a bit topical and witty. I would go as the cover of “More Songs from the Victorious City” by The Incompetents. Black cardboard and chalk were all I needed, then with some cutting and scotch taping, there you had it, a costume based on the piece Alfred Tarazi made for the cover and the concept that the band had created where you get to choose between 8 variable covers.

 A friend wanted to come, but she was tired. Early on, there was not that many people there. Sound-check was being conducted by The Incompetents. The costume got their approval. I greeted some people, one of whom was Abdallah Ko, the main character of the collaborative story “Beirut Police”, leader of a double life as a prophet, and member of the improvisational-noise group XEFM. The prophet, whose face was scratched and scarred, predicted that I should do a photo series with the costume. Read on and see if the prophecy was to be fulfilled… Serge Yared and Fadi Tabbal of The Incompetents had gotten into costume by that point. Serge was an 80’s hair metal rockstar, and Fadi was something in that same domain.

 The place had started to fill up, though it was still spacious. I was greeted by a gypsy, a detective, and girl from the future; a friend of a friend, and her friends. Some time passed, and indeed, the prophet’s prediction came true, a skeleton lady wanted to have her picture taken in the costume. She would be the first of many who would do such a thing, including Alfrec Tarazi himself, designer of the original piece, who was dressed as a mish mash of oddities (stripey stockings, tissue paper strips, white face-paint…), or as he said, he was simply dressed as “someone who doesn’t know what he’s dressed as”.

 Haig Papazian, violinist of Mashrou3 Leila, was present. I asked about how recording for their album is going, and he said that it’s almost done, so you should all expect something to be finished for sure by December. I also discovered that those videos/ short movies you see on Youtube that use their song “Raksit Leila” use it without consulting the band. I always had this notion that the band is approached with a request to use any of their songs and they force the film makers to use “Raksit Leila” to endorse it. But that turned out to be incorrect. “Raksit Leila” is the only song available for purchase in stores, so that explains why nobody uses “Zotrine” for example, unless they get it from the band themselves. He too liked the costume. I was glad to see Sharif Sehnaoui was there as well.

 -The Show: After a while, The Incompetents came on, and they were Serge and Fadi accompanied by the pianist Vladimir Kurumilian. They started off with a new song that I like very much. It is a very interesting song, bitter in a way yet cheerful in another. Then some more songs which included “Bullets Gently Flying Over My Head” and “Monster Song”. Serge sang all of the songs, Fadi played guitar, and for some songs, such as “Monster Song”, Vlagimir would join in on keyboard. For some songs, Serge would at points play the guitar while singing, while Fadi would be playing the drums, and sometimes Serge would play the drums while singing. Each also utilized some pretty neat instruments like Serge playing kazoo and somekind of percussion instrument which consisted of a stick with bells on it, and Fadi playing a mini-xylophone. They were briefly joined by Youmna Saba on drums for the last two songs I think. The last was “Urinal Blues (Part 2)”. I liked this performance, because this time they had some more variety in their instruments than the first time I had seen them. For some reason, I did not notice the VJ’ing that much.

 Scrambled Eggs hadn’t shown up yet, but did eventually. At this point there was less room than before. Tony Elieh was a pirate. Malek Rizkallah was a rabbi. Charbel Haber was Charbel Haber. They got the ball rolling with “X to Be”, then “Building A Nest” I think, which I have only heard performed acoustic by Charbel on Ziad Nawfal’s “Ruptured Sessions” CD, so that was nice, hearing it with drums and bass, all electrified like that. Then they played “Russian Roulette”, a crowd favorite and one of their most well-known. A song whose name I am not really familiar with followed, and the performance was wrapped up with “Girls On Fire”, as requested by a girl in the crowd. They were very good and very energetic, but too loud. It was the first time I saw them so I didn’t really know what to expect, how to prepare myself, but it did start getting painful at a certain point, physically painful. It was quite a contrast to The Incompetents’ mellow acoustic guitar-driven sound, but in the end, very raw and gritty. The VJ’ing this time was more noticeable to me. It included such visuals as women doing aerobics and scenes from horror movies, suiting the Halloween occasion.

 -After the Show: The performances did not disappoint, although they were conducted in this room that was cleared of the tables and chairs that would usually be there for the performance that was not fully open, but had a doorway, and a big opening in the wall, kinda like a huge window without glass. Thing is, for The Incompetents, Serge would sing in the doorway, and Fadi would stand behind him, somewhere in the rest of the room, with the drumset being in the back, and the keyboard in a corner, both easily visible from the big opening. This made keeping your focus on all musicians, or perhaps photographing them all in one shot, as it applied in my case, a bit difficult difficult. Same goes for Scrambled Eggs, except it was Tony who was out of view. But still, you have to take into consideration that Walimat Wardeh is more of a restaurant in the end than a place for musical performances and you can’t expect it to be perfectly suited for them, though don’t ask me under what conditions Ziad Sahhab and his band Shehdine Ya Baladna perform there every Thursday.

 By the end of the Scrambled Eggs performance, there was barely enough room left to move. The place was literally packed. I managed to squeeze out of there, bid farewell to whomever I could find in that sea of disguises, and be on my way…

-Photos:

*Personal:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=340688&id=842365214&saved

-Videos:

*Personal:

I have a video of The Incompetents playing “Bullets Gently Flying Over My Head” which I will edit it whenever I can upload it.

The Road to Kfifan, is a Wet One…

No actual concert-going occurred on that night, but some other interesting stuff did.

 -Backstory: I heard about this event around the time school was starting, but I was lucky that the very day this was going on was a Saturday, and it was the Saturday before a big vacation for Eid, so it was all free for the next couple of days! The main reason I wanted to attend this was because one of the pioneering artists of Lebanese rap, Rayess Bek, would be performing, and he hasn’t been here in a while, spending his days in Paris now. Plus, there would be Zeid Hamdan’s group, Hiba and The Baalbek Project (Mashrou3 Baalbak), which consists of himself, the vocalist Hiba El Mansouri, Arabic rapper RGB (who has taken the place of the vocalist Doshka), and the double bass player Miles Jay. Their performances are rare occurrences, so this would be well worth it. Other acts included Katibe 5, the three DJ team known as The Underdolls, Trash Inc., and the Basement nightclub DJ and founder, Jade. Tickets were 20 dollars which I thought was quite fair seeing as the proceeds would be going to the Offre Joie charity. Around this time, a film crew that were working on a documentary called “Yallah Underground”, about the steadily evolving contemporary Middle Eastern culture, mainly its music, were in Beirut for two weeks shooting footage. I had talked to the main man behind the project, Farid Eslam, earlier online, giving him a tip on this how, but to my surprise he already knew about it. They were quite prepared and had things all planned out, which was impressive. I was hoping to meet them that night.

 -The Unfolding: When it was announced that there would be a tent in case of the rain, I laughed and said “what rain?” I guess I should watch the news more often, because it did rain indeed. Saturday, September 19th, I showed up at Sporting Club, and found that there were not that many people, or actually no people, except for some of the musicians. Do I need a better reason to hang around? Even when they’re not performing, you can still have a good time with all of these people. And performing or not, Rayess Bek was there, and I had yet to meet him. So I decided on staying. I greeted those present: Rayess Bek, RGB, Zeid Hamdan, and Miles Jay. Katibe 5 were there too, though I did not pay them that much attention.

 Some casual small talk followed, with the occasional joke or two. I ate sheesh tawouk; the caterers they had hired were still there and the food was on the grill and they did not want it to go to waste, so all was invited to chow down. I talked to Rayess Bek for a while, but he was kind enough to sign my copies of both of his CDs first I had some things that I’d really liked to know more about, like: what happened to the old Aks’ser albums? His answer: out of print, unfortunately. Lebanese music history, lost forever. Some copies could still be collecting dust somewhere out there. Also, whatever happened to the product of his work with RZA for the PBS documentary “Dissonance and Harmony”? His answer: Financial issues. RZA’s producer wanted a lot of dough for them to be able to release this one song. Finally, when is his album with the Rayess Bek Orchestra due? His answer: It’s being mixed. I saw a cameraman shooting video. He could only be shooting for one documentary on alternative music in the Middle East. I asked about “Yallah Underground” and he pointed me to Farid. I greeted him and exchanged the same comment as I did with everyone else I had encountered: “Sucks huh? What luck!”, but as Zeid said later on: “No, we suck!”

 So after a while, the Yallah Underground crew which consisted of Farid and three other people wanted to conduct an interview with Rayess Bek, so they did it right then and there, with him standing in front of the Raouche rock with the occasional lightning adding a special touch to the shot.

 In the meantime I continued socializing, and Sporting Club’s bamboo ceiling did not hold that well, as mini waterfalls were gushing down, onto the floor, onto unsuspecting victims, such as my shoulder, one even onto the grill that the food was being cooked on. It was raining hard for a while, but then simmered down. Zeid said that everybody had to leave now, so we had to get out of the tent, but assured me that the event would take place once again when they could arrange for it, so I kept the ticket. The guys continued their interview with Rayess Bek and it was very nice seeing an interview with someone like that done live, right in front of you.

 After the interview, I was invited by the guys back to their hotel for coffee, which coincidentally was just a short distance away on foot. While we were heading out, I started doing one of the things that helped shape the identity of this very blog, and that was: yammering on and adding unnecessary details concerning a simple straightforward subject. This time it was on the fact that for me, even though there was no concert, I still had a great time hanging around with the artists, because they’re not just good musicians, they’re good people. Then Farid had an idea, and that was to interview me. Why? He’s nuts, the weather got to him… no seriously, as he said, it would represent the view of the young fans. I’m pretty young, and I’m a big fan!

 So we headed over to the hotel, settled down for a while, some of us dried off a little, had coffee, but I had a soda, and chatted about the scene in general and stuff.

 Laterish, I was outfitted with a wireless mic, and we headed out to a nearby street and started the impromptu interview. Questions and answers were made on the spot. There were some annoyances like one truck that we just couldn’t get out of our hair. It kept going up and down that street, God knows why, maybe it was transporting cargo from one end of the street to the other… After finishing up, I said my goodbyes, and we were schedueled to meet again that Monday in Ashrafieh for the International Day of Peace event that Fareeq el Utrush will play in.

 -Wrapping Up: With that ended an amazing night that could have been all the more amazing if the concert had taken place and Rayess Bek graced us with a long-anticipated performance. But it just goes to show that you can salvage any night if you have the right people around.

-Video promoting the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13HxwelzaNE