Natacha Atlas – Mounqaliba Rising: the Remixes
Reviewed by Sadie O., 11/24/11
Electronic/future dub remixes of Natacha’s last record. The Egyptian elements have a cinematic quality to them, the remixes have quite a range of styles. Everything has a rather larger-than-life feel, and is pretty damn awesome. Almost all in Arabic. No FCCs that I know of – if you hear “fukr” it’s not what you’re thinking, so get your mind out of the gutter. It means SHE’s thinking, and she seems to be doing a fair amount of it.
1. 8:59 ****deep electronic hum, spoken word and sound collage, electronic dribbles, then after a minute or so a funky dance beat starts, adding electronic and middle eastern elements. Natasha’s vocals (processed like they were underwater) start almost halfway through.
2. 5:05 ***”belly dance:” percussion and flute and male humming, then very pretty singing from Natasha and chorus, midtempo, electronics and strings fit in nicely behind the more traditional Egyptian styling. Has an almost epic mysterious quality.
3. 4:53 *****very uptempo with lots of grunty dubstep electronics and beats alongside Middle Eastern strings, Natasha singing (seems to be a love song) in a lower register – very cool mix of sounds.
4. 3:50 ***funky, glitchy midtempo beats, Middle Eastern strings, rather ominous deep minor keys. Cool hand percussion and electronic grunts.
5. 5:01 ****sparce chords from strings, slinky (but almost martial) beats from electronics,. Quite future-duppy - lots of blatty sounds and glitch.
6. 4:28 ***almost Classical-sounding violins, then complex uptempo dance beat, sweet alto singing. Nice vocal conversation between male and female chorus. Really nice bit of rubber-band upright bass.
7. 5:21 ***piano and vocal sighs intro, bit of handdrum and Natasha’s vocals with hella grunty electronics, terribly mysterious and cool. Lots of very grand piano and echoes.
8. 6:41 **slow, deep pulsing beats, quavering strings, very low-register (for Natacha) vocals, trance-y.
9. 4:04 **electronic tinkles and whooshes, then deep hums from chorus and fretless bass. Gets a slow beat after a minute, adds layers of sounds and beats, including just bits of Natacha warbling.
10. 6:50 *****plucked lute, dramatic strings. Adds a slinky, slightly downtempo beat, subtle electronics. Very attractive sound, mostly Arabesque. Gets more electronica as it goes along.
11. 5:17 *****single chord and pause, harp and cinematic strings, then double time percussion, processed vocals, electronics – very cool, especially the percussion. Upbeat, with ululations from the chorus.
12. 5:13 **old record static, glitchy beats and water plops, vocals in English. Very little beat, organ chords. Odd sound – and it just sounds strange when she sings in English.
13. 6:32 ****very traditional sounding melodium, flute and handdrum – sounds the least “remixed” of all 4 versions of this song – for one whole minute, then the electronics and club beat start. Nice mashup, as it turns out – the 4/4 electronic beat goes well with the complex handdrums.
14. 4:49 ***ack – sound collage of several news broadcasts about the recent Egyptian riots, then tinkly piano, bit of Egyptian speech, slow dance beat, chorus, bit of glitch. Really a cool sound, actually, but the spoken news bits are kind of distressing… Ends on a positive note, however.