Attieh, Elie – Inta Omri (Take 5 Music)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/28/05
Disco belly dance remixes of Arabian pop classics. Attieh is one of Lebanon’s most popular DJs, and here puts dance beats behind orchestral versions of huge classic hits such as the title number (You Are My Life) by Egypt’s prima diva Oum Khalthoum. I didn’t find it as successful as similar efforts by DJ Nader and Cheb I Sabbah, but my Egyptian friend just LOVED it (probably helps that she knows the songs). No vocals. Most cuts uptempo with doumbek, oud, LOTS of strings, and a traditional instrument akin to a zither and another like a pump organ – and the dance beats. Once you recover from the really strange combination of dance beats and a dozen violins, it’s not bad.
No FCCs cause ain’t no words! Tracks 1 and 7 best (2 is good if you time your segues around the silences at either end.)
1. 4:53 **starts with percussion that quickly merges into a disco drum machine. Arab orchestra with oud follows.
2. 5:04 *warning – silence for first 12 seconds! Then nice oud solo lead-in to orchestra. Silence for a few seconds at end, too.
3. 6:05 *rather odd mix of dance beat, full string orchestra and bits of heavy metal guitar. Some time signature changes. False ending halfway through.
4. 4:09 mid tempo with less insistent dance beats, some kind of flute. Laid back and pretty. Slow fade to silence at end.
5. 4:30 down tempo and cheesy intro, then mid tempo with vocal “aahs”. Lots of fake instrumentation. Almost half a minute of fade to silence at end.
6. 6:15 *song seems to build up almost randomly. Mid tempo with pump organ, rather nice but with some interruptions and bits of synthesized stuff.
7. 6:11 **percussion and piano intro. Solo violin and keyboards over Latin-jazzy midtempo orchestra.
8. 6:04 rather lugubrious violin intro. Then dance beats outa no-where, eek! Then midtempo and pretty, but by then it’s too late…
9. 5:04 *Nice guitar, cheesy keyboard, decent belly dance drumming, some synth. Disco tempo.
10. 7:55 dance beat lead-in – whole track is heavy on the dance beat. Same tune as third track, bits of rather startling electric guitar.
11. 5:00 4 seconds silence, then sparse oud solo. Ooop, here come the dance beats! Track 1 is better version.