Lebanese

Clotaire K – Lebanese (self produced)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 6/27/06
Roughly even mixture of Arabic trad/pop music and hip hop. Mostly a relaxed groove, generally with some Arabian instrumentation and singing, and raps by Clotaire in Arabic, French and English. Very unique and to me quite a beautiful sound. The raps in English are interesting for the perspective from a young Arab man, which may or may not be what we’re expecting.
No FCCs (at least not in English), tracks 2 and 9 are great, others very good, but forget the skits unless you need 10 seconds of spoken Arabic for some reason...
1. 3:48 **starts with solo oud. A bit downtempo and relaxed hip hop beat, some scratching, some Arabian instrumentation. Singing by Natacha Atlas, rap in Arabic.
2. 3:39 ***starts with solo stringed instrument and street sounds, rather uptempo groove, rap in French and Arabic, female singing in Arabic. Often gorgeous.
3. 3:31 *starts with subdued street noises for almost 20 seconds, then female hip hop singing and beat, then rap in Arabic. (“fakra” is Arabic for “think”, although it sounds FCC…)
4. 0:24 two guys talking in Arabic
5. 4:08 **solo flute intro, male singing in Arabic, rap in English, midtempo hip hop beat with doumbek.
6. 0:10 one guy talking in Arabic
7. 4:16 **starts with rain noises? Then solo male singer in Arabic, rap in French, no actual beat until a minute in, then downtempo. Moody, almost trance-y.
8. 0:16 female, phone message
9. 4:32 ***drops, female singing, mysterious noises, midtempo somewhat menacing sounding riddim. Rap in English, including short recording of Anwar Sadat speaking, and in Arabic.
10. 0:21 male speaking Arabic through loudspeaker.
11. 2:30 *midtempo hip hop beat, rap in French. Occasional bits of oud or flute, otherwise not very Arabic sounding. Chorus is “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” in French.
12. 6:25 *starts with several seconds of random noises and female news announcer. Midtempo, rap in French, subtle male Arabic singing, otherwise more hip hop than Arabic. Kinda trance-y. Ends with same female news announcer in French.
13. 4:40 **starts with solo oud, slightly downtempo, rap in French.
14. 4:02 ***starts with male rap in French. Midtempo beat with crazy electronic sounds and a bit of flute and female singing.
15. 0:18 several guys talking in Arabic and laughing.
16. 8:00 ***ethereal pounded string instrument and female singing. Slightly downtempo beat. Jungle riddim comes in halfway along, a lot like Asian Dub Foundation – lots of changes, very interesting.
17. 5:35 **short spoken bit in Arabic, then solo oud, no beat.
18. 0:35 chanting in Arabic, laughter.