Beirut City Pop
Ten tracks from Lebanon's private press cassette scene of the late 1970s and 1980s, many tied to Ziad Rahbani's Bypass Studio circle: disco, soul, jazz, bossa and AOR, some tapes issued in tiny runs and some never released at all.
Tirakat
New collaboration between the Jakarta trio Ali and Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Charif Megarbane: 1970s Indonesian psychedelic funk, Melayu traditions, disco grooves and Arab melodic forms played on Western instruments.
Bourj Hammoud Groove
Compilation of Ara Kekedjian, singer born in 1946 in Bourj Hammoud and a central figure of Beirut's Armenian pop scene in the 1960s and 70s: Armenian rhythms, hard drums, funky guitars and organ, compiled with Darone Sassounian.
Habibi Funk: A Selection From Libyan Tapes
Habibi Funk's third compilation, drawn from the Libyan cassette scene of the late 1980s to early 2000s: reggae, synth disco, pop, house and funk, much of it recovered from the TK7 cassette factory in Sousse.
Hawalat
Charif Megarbane's follow-up to Marzipan looks outward, to the diaspora and to exile: instrumental grooves built on the idea of hawala, with Somali, Mediterranean and jazz colours and a collaboration with Sven Wunder.
East Of Any Place
Previously unreleased studio songs by Lebanese singer-songwriter Rogér Fakhr, recorded in single-day sessions in the late 1970s during the civil war: folk arrangements, sung in English, a companion to his 2021 album Fine Anyway.
The Father Of Libyan Reggae
Collection of songs by Tripoli singer Ibrahim Hesnawi, credited with making reggae popular in Libya from the late 1970s: Jamaican reggae merged with traditional Libyan rhythms, with funk, jazz and disco touches, sung mostly in Libyan Arabic.
Marzipan
New album of 17 tracks by Beirut multi-instrumentalist and producer Charif Megarbane, in a style he calls Lebrary: Lebanese and Mediterranean scenes rendered through library music, drawing on Ziad Rahbani, Ahmed Malek and Issam Hajali.
Subhana
Songs from the mid 2000s by Benghazi-born singer and producer Ahmed Ben Ali: heavy Libyan reggae with synthesized grooves, mixing Jamaican rhythms with Libyan folk rhythms and oriental melodies, following his 12" Subhana.
Orkos
The only album by Egyptian singer Maha, vocalist with Salah Ragab's Cairo Jazz Band, recorded in Cairo in 1979 and issued on cassette by Sout El Hob: jazz and Egyptian vocal tradition over funk, Latin and soul, produced with Hany Shenoda.
Oghneya
The 1978 album by Beirut group Ferkat Al Ard, led by singer Issam Hajali with arrangements by Ziad Rahbani: Arabic song, jazz, folk and bossa nova on poems by Mahmoud Darwish and Samih Al Qasem, first issued on cassette, then on vinyl in 1979.
The SLAM! Years (1983-1988)
Songs Libyan-born singer and producer Hamid El Shaeri recorded for the Egyptian cassette label SLAM! between 1983 and 1988, after moving to Cairo via London: synth-heavy Arabic pop and funk, including his track Ayonha.
Chant Amazigh
A selection of works by Algerian-born Amazigh singer Majid Soula: Kabyle music mixed with disco, highlife and funk over synths, driving drums and repetitive guitar lines, with lyrics tied to his defence of Berber culture and Tamazight.
Fine Anyway
Songs written and recorded by Lebanese singer-songwriter Rogér Fakhr in Beirut in the late 1970s: English-language folk with touches of other genres, partly from his cassette Fine Anyway, hand copied in about 200 copies, partly never released.
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World, Part 2
Second Habibi Funk compilation of lesser-known music from North Africa and the Middle East: Egyptian organ funk, Moroccan disco, Libyan reggae, political songs from Lebanon and Algerian soundtrack music, with Fadoul, Ahmed Malek and Ibrahim Hesnawi.
The King Of Sudanese Jazz
Recordings by Sharhabil Ahmed, born in 1935 and crowned king of Sudanese jazz: from the 1960s he blended Sudanese and East African harmonies with electric guitar, horns, surf, rock n roll, funk and Congolese music.
Jazz, Jazz, Jazz
Full reissue of the rare album by Khartoum band The Scorpions with singer Saif Abu Bakr, recorded in the 1970s: Sudanese jazz with strong horn arrangements and funky drums, crime-film style instrumentals, traditional rhythms and a soukous excursion.
Muslims And Christians
Two radio studio sessions by Sudanese singer Kamal Keila, recorded in Khartoum on 12 August 1992 and kept on reels at his home: Sudanese jazz with Ethiopian, Afrobeat and funk influences, political songs in English and Arabic. Never released before.
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World
Label compilation of 16 tracks by 15 artists from across the Arab world, 1970s and 1980s: funk, soul and pop alongside Arabic zouk, Algerian coladera and Lebanese AOR, from Fadoul, Ahmed Malek, Dalton, Al Massrieen, Kamal Keila and others.
Modern Music
Reissue of Modern Music, the fifth and last album by the Egyptian group Al Massrieen, led by composer Hany Shenouda and first released in 1984: Arabic-language funk, disco and pop with electronic instruments, originally pressed in Lebanon.