Middle Eastern music

Post Reply New Topic

Is there anyone else here who, like me, is into Middle Eastern music? I love many styles from the Middle East, especially Arabesque and multicultural rock with Middle Eastern influences.

A few recommendations I have to make:

1) Natacha Atlas.

Born in Brussels but from Egyptian origin, Natacha lived all over the world and mixes cultural and ethnic influences of the music of the countries she has been in. The result is a unique multicultural sound where however Arabic music and lyrics are dominant. A few songs to recommend: Amulet (her best one IMO), Mistaneek, Yalla Chant, Mon Amie la Rose, Bastet, ...

Here is a video to Amulet. Really breathes the atmosphere of the average Middle Eastern city. Arabesque music to its best! Features a guest appearance from two Moroccan hiphop artists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D9ixnf_HCQ

Mistaneek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8JKDSGoYDo

2) Orphaned Land

One of the most unique metal bands and bringing music with a true message. OL come from Israel and their music reflects the political and social situation of their country (the orphaned land aka Israel) and its area. A lot of their songs are about the problems of the Middle East, but Orphaned Land try to build bridges between the different cultures of the Middle East by combining Jewish and Arab elements. They also sing in both Hebrew and Arab and Yemeni (and English) and often use biblical metaphors and Quran chants.

Ocean Land:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF_hrt_zUpw

Norra el Norra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQGd10MzDv8

I've never heard these kinds of music, but they sound interesting.

Tim

Check them out. The music sounds intruiging and mysterious, if you close your eyes you can dream away in mind to Arabia and Persia... There is a big diversity of Middle Eastern music so there is definitely some ME artists you will like. Check out Natacha Atlas to begin with, she is really good and (because of the elements from other cultures in the background) quite accessible to begin with.

I like Vas, and Azam Ali in general...also the "300" soundtrack (which Azam Ali was on) has a cool middle-eastern vibe to it at times. The soundtrack to the game "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" is also nice (as opposed to "Warrior Within," which had a soundtrack by Godsmack--not necessarily bad, just different).

My daughter, her mom and I all like music from all parts of the world.
I'd have to look up the cd's I have, but I do like M.E. music also.

I had to special order this pretty rare cd, its called Saurian Meditation by Karl Sanders. He is a guitarist and singer in one of my favorite bands, and the best damn death metal band ever, Nile.
You can already tell from Nile how obsessed with Egypt this guy is, and this cd is no exception, and it shows the kinda musical range he has when you compare it to the music of Nile. Its all accoustic stuff, there is few electric guitars and few singing, he uses a lot of instruments I've probably never heard of, but it sounds all Egyptian or middle-eastern or something, I don't know if Egypt is part of the middle-east or not, well I dont really know how to describe it cause there is a lot of variation throughout the album. The first track, Awaiting The Vultures is probably my favorite, and its on his myspace page, so check it out if you think you might like it
Karl Sanders <--- link

I like traditional middle eastern music, not rap or metal.

I guess most of you have heard of Ofra Haza. She was a Yemeni Jew from Israel. There’s a great version of Im Nim Alu from 1978 on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2xNTzlFSk0

This is much better than the 1980s version!

Here’s a couple of songs I like, from a guy called Khaled, a “rai” singer from Algeria

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9RjjsvP-XU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F9Dg7jV0dU

His most famous song is probably “Didi”. It’s catchy, but a bit too “pop” for me, but here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmCE6IBFDjs

Another musician I really like is Brian Eno, but mainly for his ambient music. He made an album with David Byrne from Talking Heads. One of the tracks, called “Regiment”, featured a Lebanese singer called Dunya Yusin. I used to quite like this, but not so much anymore. Maybe because I can foresee a time in the near future when this sort of religiously-inspired Arabic wailing becomes a feature of daily life in Britain. But maybe that’s a subject for another thread. Anyway, see what you think of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QiyB0xlG7A

I liked Norra el Norra. I'm not very familiar with Middle Eastern music, I went to a psaltery concert of traditional Iranian music and liked it a lot. I generally go for traditional music, classical music. Any suggestions from the ME?