NND's take on Lebanese Music
 

As Ziad Rahbany is considered as the greatest living Arabic musician, I'll begin with him for now. So Ziad is Fairuz' son, and got firstly known for composing his mother's songs, after his father died (Assi Rahbany, the creator of Lebanese music), I'll just talk about the whole deal.


Starting off with Fairuz (formerly known as Nouhad Haddad). Well she never wrote songs, but her voice was the muse that inspired all the great writers and composers of this side of the world. She was married to Assi Rahbany, who was the one to revolutionize Lebanese music and put it in the same level as Egyptian music (with Oum Koulthoum mainly). He was the one to discover her talent, and together they were an unbeatable match, the head of Lebanese music. Until one day, her son Ziad Rahbany, the mix of these two artists, ran away from home and started his musical career. He revolutionized Lebanese music a second time, introducing Jazz to the mainly Folk compositions of the Rahbany family.

The first part would be, about the compositions he made for Fairuz, which he mixed the Classical/Folk Fairuz with his own version of Jazz.


I can't talk about Ziad, without talking about his cynical lyrics and the plays he wrote. As you won't understand much about the lyrics, I'll just move to the music in his plays, which was the second part of his career. He would always work with the late Joseph Sakr, and they'd be the two, with other usual actors, acting in this play. Then Sakr would sing on his oud, as part of the story, as he usually played the role of a "struggling artist".
Or you can enjoy the music at the beginning, the intermission, and the end of the play, that would also be composed by Ziad Rahbany, to become themselves classics.


The third part of his career, moving on to just composing studio albums. After Joseph Sakr died, Ziad continued to compose for other artists he would hand pick. The latest was Salma, an unknown artist that only sang on this album. She was picked for her unusual "un-tuned" voice. Have a listen, from the album Salma monodose

I hate Arabic music, which is funny beause I study Arabic language and literature. I like some of the songs by Ziad Rahbani and also some Arabic black metal bands

^ Well I hate mainstream Arabic music, a lot really. It actually, physically, makes me sick. However, there are some gems from the past and present, that I am trying to discover, and maybe try to share.

There are a lot of songs by Ziad that I find much better, but thought of just posting some kind of samples, so feel free to add any of your favourites on here. And if you want to share some of the Arabic black metal bands you're familiar with, please feel free to do so, but try to write something more than just their names.

I wonder though, how come you're studying Arabic language and literature?

I study Arabic because I like the language and the writing. I dislike most of the music. There are a lot of Arabic black metal bands, but, unfortunately, most of their lyrics are in English. There is one band that I particularly whose lyrics are in Arabic. It is called Narjahanam, from Bahrain http://www.youtube.com/v/3bMNLHJVm8I&hl

^ Well they're kinda forced to sing in English, if they want to get out of the Arabic countries, as there's no chance for them to be known in the local markets. That's why I'm not going to post only Arabic speaking bands, as "arabic music" is not only made by the language.

Btw, here's a documentary a watched a few days ago, about a band trying to make it out of Iraq, if you're interested:


IMDB link to the movie

I have heard about that documentary. I wanted to watch it but I couldn't find it anywhere

They were showing it on TV, I just stumbled upon it by luck. If you ever find it, it's a must, specially after knowing that metal is illegal in Iraq, and music is all they have to express their struggle.

maybe I could download it friom rapidshare or megaupload

I hope you find it.

On another note, I'll continue with the reviews:


Genre: Indie, downtempo, trip hop.

They are truly a cult band in here, maybe the first underground band defying the mainstream big labels. They're mainly influenced by Ziad Rahbany, as they took his jazz, bossa-nova, oriental music fusion, and added a hint of Electronica. Even Ziad's influence on the lyrics is obvious, in contrast to the mainstream's "I miss you even when you're near" lyrics.
Soap Kills is no longer a band, but both members are still making music, and I surely will talk about their other projects later on. As for now, enjoy the music:



I have links for 3 of their albums, if anyone's interested.

I liked what you posted on page 2, but especially the Salma Monodose stuff. Do you have a link for that by any chance? I came up with absolutely nothing when I looked.

Soap Kills also sounds interesting, especially the second song. If you don't mind linking one of their albums, maybe the one the second tune came off of, that'd be pretty cool. :thumb:

Genre: experimental, Indie, rock, world.
Year: 2009


The biggest thing now, since Soap Kills. Maybe because everyone knows them as they are students in the most popular uni here, or maybe because they truly capture the spirit of the Lebanese youth. Their lyrics are a mix of everything a young adult living in this screwed up middle east hears and feels. From the wars, car bombs, to the social problems of a very uptight religious and sectarian land and the rising rate of the jobless that only find peace in immigrating to richer bigger countries. It's not wholly driven by the western influences, which makes it the most genuine music of this last decade, respecting the identity of the original middle eastern sound.


I only heard of them very recently, after many of my friends had seen them live and were never able to shut-up about it. So I first listened to them two weeks ago, in my friend's car, after he purchased the album at the just mentioned concert. It took me less than a minute to notice how unique they were. It was a mix of everything I've ever heard, but still something very new. A lot of inside jokes, and references in the lyrics, which makes it even more familiar, but still, it's the first time I listen to something that wasn't trying to imitate a "Lebanese sound", but just doing their thing in pure honesty. Living here is not about enduring the bombs and the misery, it's just about making fun of it, as it weirdly became something natural. There's no drama, there's no denial about the reality we're living in, there's only how we're living, with the eternal struggle between the Western liberal influence and the Eastern narrow-mindedness that is keeping us to the ground.
... but what the hell, we do the best of it.

The videos don't show much, but just enough to make you want to hear the real thing. Both videos were amateurishly taken by some cell-cam, but those are just samples. If you find it interesting, I got a link to their self-titled debut that was released in December 09.

So NumberNineDream was cool enough to send me this when I requested it. I really enjoyed this album a lot and, after sorta raving about it, I was more or less dared to review it in this thread as a "Foreign ear". ><
I still donno if I should do a review, as I'm not the expert here, but I'll discuss why I liked it at least.



To start off I'll just say, this is a lot of fun to listen to. Musically, some of it sounds like stuff I'm pretty familiar with...quite jazzy and swing sounding, with alot of piano and brass. There's quite a few instruments mixed in that I don't know though, as well as some random ones that took me by surprise. The fourth song for example, Gingele, starts with some loud whistles like you might here in a marching band. At one point you even here a loud bird call?! I'm not sure what that is at the :15 second mark either, but I like it!
If I had to pick one thing...the piano work is probably what stands out the most to me over the course of Salma Monodose. But everything here works well together though, and the entire album is almost all very upbeat. My head was nodding the entire time.

The vocals on here are very nice. The singers "un-tuned" voice is still very pretty I think, and pleasant sounding. Occasionally she is joined by a chorus of voices behind hers which is fun, as well as a sorta creepy-sounding man who jumps in randomly and kinda takes me by surprise when he does. The ninth song on here also has a very nice, love-sounding duet, with her and a man who is not-so-creepy sounding.
Of course I can't really understand anything that's actually being sung here, which isn't a horrible thing really. I can pretty much tell by the tone which songs are happy (most of them), sad (Black&Why), and about love (Ma Bitfid). Since I'm not able to understand, I can actually use my imagination and picture my own ideas of what they're about, which is fun.

As for favorites...I'd probably pick Gingele as mine. I actually picture this as a song from a musical, where she is walking down the street singing, in the middle of a parade. I love the chorus here, especially when the crowd of people starts singing along with her. Other favorites are Assaada Allahou Masa'akom (SO funky) and Ma Bitfid, which is a slow and soft love duet, with mostly just soft piano and bass accompaniment.

All in all, very cool album, and I think others would enjoy it. I honestly might think of buying it if the only copy I could find online wasn't $120. :eek:

Anyway, I'm likin' this thread a lot. Keep it up imo. :thumb:

(^That is pretty much a review isn't it...jeez. 0_0)

The "creepy-sounding man" is Ziad joining in, he never sings as his voice is all messed up by the cigarettes, but hearing him can always make us laugh (usually people here just laugh whenever he talks, as it's too hard to know if he's sarcastic or not).

Well not bad review here, it doesn't really need some expertise to talk about that album. I wasn't expecting you'll be liking it that much, it warms my heart. Btw, no one really buy a Ziad Rahbany album, everyone just have all his works on mp3s scattered around the house. I didn't know it would be that expensive to get it, I guess I took his albums for granted lol. Well if you ever swing by our side, there's his whole discography and Fairuz', as the two alone have four spots on the local top 10 for more than 2 decades.

And about Gingele, I think it's a cover of a a song originally written by the bossa-nova king, Antonio Carlos Jobim. This man's influence on Ziad is well noticeable all through the latter's career.

Ah, I had a feeling that might be who the voice belonged to. Now I feel bad for calling it creepy though, if he actually has problems talking. Sounds pretty mean now...oops. :|

True. Still, glad I didn't embarrass myself somehow (Well beyond calling the composer creepy of course). :thumb:

Nah he makes it creepy on purpose. Just his voice got a bit too lowered after he started smoking. It was obvious as he was just starting to act in his plays. So in the first play he had a kinda normal voice, the second, second play and his voice aged more than 20 years, but he uses it well.

A cool fact for you to enjoy
Until now, no one knows if his plays were recorded on video. There are rumours that maybe Ziad asked for the recorded plays to stay hidden. So from the middle 80s till now, all the Lebanese have these plays on tape, and many radios play them daily, thus everyone in this country has memorised every single word of all 8 of them.

Point Taken
 

But as Arabic is a language and they do sing in Arabic, and yes it is Jazz but music transcends language imo, that's why I posted here, anyway am glad you enjoyed it.

Arabic has become more than a language, to become a common culture that 21 countries share. There is more than the language in the Arabic music, there are different scales and usually different instruments, and that is what I'm usually trying to talk about. And if I'm going to label Ethiopique as Arabic, I'd be just lying to myself to enrich Arabic music.

...and as you said, music transcends language, so having them talk in Arabic for few tracks, doesn't make their music Arabic.

So here they are, the 3 videos, the best (imo) of each artist:

-I-

Artist: Ziad Rahbany
Album: Monodose
Track: no.9 - Ma bt fid (it's no good)
Year: 2002




-II-

Artist: Soap Kills
Album: Cheftak (I saw you)
Track: no.4 - Kazdoura (promenade)
Year: 2002




-III-

Artist: Mashrou' Leila
Album: Mashrou' Leila
Track: no.2 - 3ubwa (Bomb)
Year: 2009

^That third band is very cool too, nice addition. Some very psychedelic sounds there and the violin is great.

1:57 - 2:07 is the best though. I seriously love it when they do that. :D

NOTIFICATION

I thought I'd just separate I from Arabic music, as going deeper and deeper into the culture, I realised how 70% of the Lebanese bands won't really stick much under the "Arabic Music" tag.
As Lebanon is in a very mixed point of the world, the artists sing in 4 different languages, and the music varies between all the genres possible. I'll surely get myself more familiar with the surrounding music scene, and I'll be posting about them in the second thread. As for now, I'll try to talk about all the local bands I've been digging lately.

I'll try my best to maintain a high degree of quality music, without throwing names to raise the numbers.

Edit: Gotta thank Bulldog for separating the threads :p:

I had never heard it before ....dis is amazing

I thought I'd bump this.

So, Mashrou' Leila, a band I talked about previously, has released its first music video... I liked it, very "ethnic" lol. I haven't posted that song before, and this time, the video is official (and not composed of a single photo).

Here's their single, Raksit Leila, off their self-titled album, released in 2009.



Enjoy.

I just stumbled on this video few minutes ago, but I just had to post it, as kind of a homage to Lhasa de Sela that tragically died few months ago, succumbing to breast cancer.

Lhasa is from Lebanese origins, so she lately started to sing in her concerts one of the most typically Lebanese songs, by Fairuz, and lyrics by another great Lebanese artist, Gubran Kahlil Gubran.

That song, worked greatly with Lhasa's voice, and the song itself is awe-inspiring.



Enjoy.
Cheers.

Wadih El Safi (born Wadih Francis in 1921, and still alive and healthy at the age of 89) is a Lebanese Folk and Tarab singer, often referred to as "The Voice of Lebanon", and known for his very powerful vocal range filled with warmth and sensibility, always accompanied by his own oud playing.

He started his musical career after winning a contest on the national radio at the age of 17. After that, he began composing and singing his own songs, and appearing in the Lebanese musicals made popular in the 50s and 60s and in the usual musical plays, alongside the biggest names in the business (in Lebanon & Egypt anyway), and composing to names like Fairuz and Sabah.

He sang his country and sang for love, with heartbreaking Mouwals (a kind of slow emotional improvisation introducing the song) and his own heartfelt lyrics. So here are the usual youtube vids. I tried putting a bit of variety, so there are two sad songs and the other two are a bit more jovial.

The Saddies:


The Jovials:


I just noticed something in the guy's style of writing. Seems like all the poems he writes are a kind of Mounajat, a style in Arabic literature used to write a conversation, or monologue, to an object or a person.

Just two extra videos I felt I should include in a second post.

Here's an example of one of el-Safi's songs in a play entitled "Ahwet Ayn el-May" (as in Café Ayn el-May) - the costumes were hilarious.

Yamma ana wa al layl (When I'm with the night)



Another thing to add to this review/article, is the collaboration of Wadih el-Safi with Andalusian gypsy singer Jose Fernandes in late 90s, which revived el-Safi's career and widened his already vast popularity. Many of el-Safi's classics got redone with Flamenco style, to give us this:

Jannat (Paradise gardens)

Description (from youtube): This videoclip is of Wadih el-Safi and Jose Fernandez performing Jannat. Wadih is celebrating his 79th birthday on this day at Casino du Liban on 31-Oct.-1999. That is his son, Georges el-Safi, on the violin. Wadih's wife and daughter are in the crowd. Proof that he can still rock no matter what's his age.



Enjoy!