North Africa
Jannis of Jakarta Records – Habibi Funk 004 Mix
Jannis Stürtz has added another a great mix to his Habibi Funk series and this one will heat up the dampest October day. This time we’re getting straight into 1980s Algerian disco, uptight Moroccan dancefloor cuts and a straight-up, funky-as-hell cover of James Brown’s Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – not to mention a gritty funk rock version of Free’s Alright Now by Fadoul. Habibi Funk will be reissuing the full Al Zman Saib album by Fadoul in December, which will include an Arabic-language James Brown cover and, according to Jannis, “six super-wild songs about drugs, alcohol and getting high”.
Egypt
Hassan Khan – Taraban Concert
Hassan Khan is a link to the old “new Cairo”. Egypt has been the incubator and originator for so many aspects of modern civilisation – including formalised writing systems and central government. So perhaps it’s understandable that people are less aware of the country’s development of early electronic music. Almost as soon as the technology of recording music onto magnetic tape had been liberated from the Nazis after the second world war, the development of avant garde electro-acoustic tape music got well underway in Egypt. Artist, writer and musician Hassan Khan is, in some respects, an upholder of that tradition of bleeding-edge experimentation. In this concert piece called Taraban, recorded live in 2014 at the D-CAF in Cairo, Khan takes inspiration from two early 20th-century Egyptian songs by Youssef El Manialawy, employing the oud, qanun, violin and riq while working live with filters, processors, virtual synthesisers, live mics and mixers to produce a new composition in real time. Spiritually, this is not so different to electro chaabi: they are both the product of the very new and the very traditional being smashed together to produce new forms for the 21st century.
Turkey
Mazhar Ve Fuat – Adımız Miskindir Bizim (Edit Mehmet Aslan)
Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan – or MFÖ – are a mainstream but subtly subversive Turkish pop trio who repped for their country twice at Eurovision in 1985 and 1988. They may have only finished mid-table on both occasions, but this (at times over enthusiastically uber-tweaked) edit by Mehmet Aslan shows a group with finely tuned dancefloor sensibilities nonetheless. (It’s just outside of my jurisdiction, but while I’m talking about Middle Eastern and North African re-edits … you simply have to beg, steal or borrow a copy of this amazing Henrik Schwarz version of Ene Nyame “A” Mensuro by Ghanaian Afro legends Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas. It’s got to be one of the tracks of the year.)
Lebanon
Ihsan Al Munzer – Jamileh
Yet more stone cold Lebanese dancefloor gold here from Ihsan Al Munzer and a track called Jamileh, which first saw the light of day on the self-explanatory 1979 album Belly Dance Disco, which had a limited reissue this year by Fortuna. It is, as you can hear, gold dust, and should be filed next to the sublime Abu Ali by Ziad Rahbani.
Mali
DJ Sandji – 100% Balani Show Mix
Free is always good. Especially when it’s a banging mixtape ushering you into Mali’s street-party scene. This mixtape (and it actually does come on cassette tape, if you decide to show label Sahel Sounds some love and buy a physical copy) is a high-octane offering from Bamako’s Balani show originator DJ Sandji. Balani shows are essentially the Malian version of block parties and the music, today, tends to mix up Malian pop, hip-hop, naija, hyper-fast kuduro, bass-heavy balafon house and chopped up Coupé Décalé rhythms with added live remixing and drum programming.
- Thanks this month go to Yousif Nur, Jannis Stürtz and Chris Kirkley. Email suggestions for future playlists to john@thequietus.com.
