Raquay & The Cavemen – Jordan
Middle Eastern/ Mediteranean.
The musicians here are competent enough, some pieces are definitely better than others. They do their bit well enough, and the darbukah drumming sessions are very good. The sound on the whole album is slightly muffled. All pieces are instrumental.

(1) Bulgarian, strings and drums. The music is passably good but the sound is muffled.
***(2) Very nice drumming duel, I defy you not to get up and jiggle all your bits.
(3) Wind instruments in the fore, strings and drums. Could have come straight out of Disney’s Aladdin.
(4) Strings, has a very interesting blend of major and minor cords and fast and slow. Apparently has a microtone on the 2nd note of the scale if you know what that means. At 6mins it is over-long.
(6) 9 second skit.
*** (7) Drumming. I love it!
(8) Strings. Can be played continuously from (7). Has a more studio produced “pop” sound, not great.
(9) Nice middle eastern piece with skillful oud playing, also has wind instr, drums and strings.
*** (10) More drumming. This one does a call-response thing and it is great.
(11) 20 sec skit.
(12) A Russian folksy sound, minor key. Not bad.
*** (13) Drumming. A lot of familiar patterns in there. OK, I think you know I like it.
(14) 10 seconds of purring.
*** (15) Strings, Bulgarian. Interesting changes of pace throughout the song.