Mutamassik, Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works (Sound-Ink Records)

If the world were more just, the public more discerning, the Italian-Egyptian-American producer/turntablist mutamassik (born, Giulia Loli) would be much more renowned. I first encountered her work on a cut called “Complicity M28 Mix,” from Arto Lindsay’s album “Mundo Civilizado - Remixes” (1997). It starts with a short refrain from an Arab orchestra, then proceeds to wreck, cut up, deconstruct and scratch to bits the original Lindsay cut, on occasion inserting more Arab fragments of voice and orchestra. (The only lyric you hear from Lindsay is, at one point, “silence.”) I found it amazingly inventive and loved the insidiously clever ways mutamassik injected the Arab material into Lindsay’s Brazilian-tinged mix. I’ve been trying to track down mutamassik’s material ever since, but it’s not always been easy to find. A friend sent me “KMT Babomb USA,” an e.p. with two cuts, “Immigrants On Course” and “Sa’aidi Hardcore.” For some reason it took me awhile to get it, but I’ve really come to appreciate how, on “Sa’aidi Hardcore” (the Sa’id is Upper [southern] Egypt, and Sa’idis are considered backward hicks by educated Cairenes), mutamassik manages to interweave rap, drum ‘n’ bass, Egyptian orchestra, and Sa’idi beats so effortlessly.

I particularly love mutamassik’s album “Bidoun (Stateless),” a live session recorded live in Brooklyn in 2002 for Bidoun, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2003). (The fact that this was put out in the UAE indicates the existence of a cool club scene there that I knew--and still know--almost nothing about. I hope someone enlightens us. For a hint, go to mumtaz.com/dubai.) On “Bidoun” mutamassik goes beyond Egyptian music and messes with music from all over the Arab world. On tracks one and two she uses and cuts up a folk song (from the Omani Revolutionary Army[!}), with female vocals and ‘ud and percussion, bleeding it cleverly into a US rap cut. (You have to have an incredible archival knowledge, and memory, to identify all the samples, and I just can’t do it. One of the amazing things about Mutamassik as a turntablist is her expert knowledge of both Arab and hip-hop tracks.) My favorite cut on Bidoun is track seven. Here she takes one of Cheb Khaled’s well-known numbers (“Habibti Madjatch,” with Chaba Zahouania) and just lets it run, but cuts it up & fragments the hell out of, slowing it down, repeating sections, ripping them up. I especially like how she makes the accordion-sounding keyboard instrumental prelude stutter and pause for the first 20 seconds or so. I’ve been listening to rai for years, and I find that mutamassik’s cut-up of Cheb Khaled makes me contemplate more deeply the various intricate elements that go into constructing this song.

Then there’s “Rough Americana,” recorded live with her husband Morgan Craft, a guitarist (or rather, “stunt guitarist”) who has played with the likes of Talib Kweli and Meshell N'degeocello. “Rough Americana” is much more experimental, less about the breaks and more about a sound assault/collage. Recorded in 2002, it’s a kind of avant-garde commentary on life and politics in the imperial US, post-9/11, an evocation of a state of emergency. (And mutamassik drags in sounds from all over, not focusing on Middle Eastern material.) I admire “Rough Americana” but I can only listen in small doses. It agitates me, it makes me nervous and edgy, and I suppose that is the point.

“Definitive Works” (released this June) gives us a bit of the feel of “Rough Americana” on the cut, “High Alert A'ala Teta (Interlude For Granma),” which with its helicopters and sirens and other ominous tones, suggests everyday realities in a neighborhood under occupation. Then a belly dance beat picks up, and vocals and Arab orchestra riffs and strange keyboard riffs, and we get a sense of resistant, urbanized, polyglot life. The rest of the cuts on “Definitive Works” are more upbeat than “High Alert.” They do an amazing job of giving us a complex understanding of the funkiness and deep bassness of belly dance and other Oriental rhythms, as these are cut up and reassembled and woven into and out of and supplemented by hip-hop and junglist rhythms. In some ways what mutammasik is doing here is coherent with the project of Natacha Atlas (and others like her): insinuating Middle Eastern music into the Western scene by incorporating it into recognizable frameworks (in the case of mutamassik, avant turntablism), thereby rendering Middle Eastern culture less “foreign” and more human and comprehensible. By fusing elements of Middle Eastern and Western (and in particular, African-American) musics to create a funky hybrid, the us/them, East/West dichotomies are broken down or at least brought into question. Inshallah, and assuming that audiences get it. There’s something more going on here as well, as mutamassik seems to have an additional project in mind: an effort to suggest the African roots of Egypt, to problematize its Arab identity. The belly-dance/hip-hop alignments point to an Afro-oriental as opposed to a purely Arab Egypt. I think this is part of what mutamassik is getting at in the title, Masri Mokkassar (broken Egyptian). She elaborates on these ideas in an article posted on the Rough Americana website (scroll down to “De-Nile”). This project makes sense given the fact that her mother is an Egyptian Copt whose family is originally from the Sa’id, Egypt’s hinterland. (To suggest that Egypt is “African” is controversial in Egypt, to say the least.)

I am sorry that “Rough Americana” and “Bidoun” are not represented here (and so I wonder how this collection then is “definitive”). On the other hand, most of the material here is from sources that I was not able to put my hands on previously, and it’s all, in its own way, great. Perhaps this is not the definitive mutamassik collection, but is in essential one.

Mutamassik and Morgan Craft--unfortunately for us--are now based in Italy, and I don’t know when we in the US will have the chance to see them perform here again.


postscript/APOLOGY: In my article “Islamic Hip-Hop versus Islamophobia,” in the volume Global Noise, edited by Tony Mitchell, I ended by noting that, in contrast to England and France, the US had not seen the emergence of an Islamic hip-hop scene. (I wrote this in ‘98, the book came out in 2001.) I suggest that mutamassik might portend the emergence of such a scene, out of the DJ scene. I know regret writing this, because mutamassik is not Muslim, and because the statement has now taken on a life of its own. Hesham Samy Abdel-Alim has published an article about global, and especially, US Islam and hip-hop in Al-Ahram Weekly (“Hip hop Islam,” 7-12 July 2005). In it he writes, “I am currently conducting research to uncover more of these Islamic nation-building activities within the hip hop nation. For example, what do we know about NYC's Egyptian female rapper Mutamassik (meaning "tenacious" in Arabic)? What are her personal struggles, and how has she contributed to [Islamic] nation-building activities through and beyond her music?” Since elsewhere Abdel-Alim cites my “Islamophobia” article, I assume I am the source of his questions about mutamassik (although I never called her a rapper). Unfortunately, I’ve also seen this article show up on other blogs (like Planet Grenada). Anyway, I feel it was wrong to bring mutamassik up in this context, without explaining carefully how as a Copt she might relate to the larger trend of Islamic hip hop.

More Invincible: "People Not Places" + Mutamassik mp3 and Kufiyaspotting (#36)

Thanks to a comment by Invincible on my previous post, I now know about her song, "People Not Places." You can hear it and read the lyrics here. It's part of Expressions of Nakba, an international virtual art exhibit put together on the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe that created roughly 750,000 Palestinian refugees.

The song describes a "birthright" tour through Israel, that reveals the hidden traces of Palestine at various Israeli tour sites.

Blue white flags
For the birthright Tour I’m on
Never mention 3 villages the airport is on
recent history buried but it speaks thru the sand
all jews- law of return-I don’t seem to understand
a land without a people for people without a land? But
I see a man standing with a key and a deed in his hand

Invincible writes: "One of my main aims is to destroy the myth of a 'Jewish birthright' to a land Palestinians are denied the Right of Return to." (Check out Birthright Unplugged.)

Check out Invincible's blog where she gives an account of playing a show in Leipzig, and how promoters were uneasy about her kufiya, because they're often worn by neo-Nazis in Germany.

Plus: Awhile back I received an announcement of a new track from Mutamassik, posted on the Rough Americana website. It's called "B. Shebang (Bastille Mix)," and I highly recommend it. But also check out the other free downloads there, from Mutamassik and her husband, Morgan Craft. I'm really looking forward to the release of Mutamassik's new album, "That Which Death Cannot Destroy." For my review of Mutamassik's last release, go here.



I posted this photo of Mutamassik almost three years ago, before I was "kufiyaspotting" in a focused way. (It used to be up on the Rough Americana website, and was taken by Arthur Jaffa.)

Get this: Mutamassik's newly remastered "That Which Death Cannot Destroy." Free!

photo: Morgan Craft

In case you don't already know how cool Mutamassik is, The Wire is promoting this. That enough for ya?

About the recording, Mutamassik sez: "It still 'cannot be bought or sold' and I'm playing all the instruments, again, as opposed to sampling ghosts of my ancestors whose names I did not even know."

Here's the link to The Wire, which will link you to the downloads.

I don't, alas, have time to review the release, but I did review her album, Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works here.

Mutamassik & Morgan Craft in Sweden

Check out this vid of Morgan Craft and Mutamassik performing at the Clandestino Festival in Gothenberg (Göteborg) Sweden. It's a kufiyaspotting; it's a desert camouflage spotting; it's avant-garde agit-prop. It reminds me, for some reason, of Jimi Hendrix doing "Machine Gun."(Thanks, Giulia.)

Keep your eyes and ears out for Mutamassik's forthcoming release, That Which Death Cannot Destroy. In the meanwhile, download the teasers from RoughAmericana.

More Saidi Hardcore from Mutamassik

From her new (August) LP, Rekkez. 

"Wishik" (Your Face)


"Dr. Aida."


My 2005 review of mutamassik's Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works is here.

Mutamassik "Coptic Guts" متمسك

It takes GTS to be a QPT in GYPT (here's only one reason why)

new one from mutamassik's Rekkez album. Chant sampled from Xmas makeshift Coptic church, California, in abandoned office space.

Mutamassik & Morgan Craft in US, February & March '06

I just learned that Mutamassik & Morgan Craft will be performing in the US in February & March of '06. When I learn more details I will post. I am hoping (but it's just a hope) for a gig in Memphis, TN, named after the ancient capital of the Old Kingom of Egypt, from around 3100 to 1300 BC.

interzone radio, march 2

podcast for the show is here. and the playlist is here.

be sure to check out this video, "Ali Baba Twist," from Bob Azzam, of "Ya Mustapha" fame:

and make sure you check out Mutamassik's terrific new release, ThatWhichDeathCannotDestroy.

read about what wayne says about it here. You can download it for free via wayne as well.

here is what I wrote about her 2005 album, Definitive Works.

Sound Comments...

Turn on Fox News, turn off the sound, and listen to:

DJ Ahmedenijad aka Cesar Chavez (Tehran, Lebanon)
2/5 BZ (Turkey)
Gözel Records (Turkey)
Ramallah Underground (Palestine)
free mp3s of Iraqi music

Thanks to wayne&wax for these listening suggestions.

and don't forget Fun'Da'Mental here and here (click on 'Goodies' and scroll down to the bottom for mp3s)

Addendum: at the suggestion of wayneandwax--check out soot records, and in particular these artists who do stuff with a Middle Eastern flavor: Nettle, dj/rupture, Filastine and Mutamassik. Poke around; sometimes in the news section you can find mp3s.

Tags: music, Middle East

best “world” music of ‘05

I’ve not compiled a best-of list for a couple years, although I used to do it regularly on my Interzone Radio show. But lately I’ve been consuming music in a somewhat different way, sampling cuts from here and there, and I’ve been less focused on what is the most “current” or hip in the world music scene. But inspired by Steven Shaviro, I’ve decided to have at it again. My top 10 is all “world music”, whatever that is. My "others" ventures a bit further generically. This list is not necessarily in order of what I think is best, and for sure I’ve forgotten some things....

1. Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler, Wameedd. Amazing collaboration between former Sabreen vocalist and Swiss electronic sound producer. Spare, beautiful, experimental, eerie.

2. Tranglobal Underground, Impossible Broadcasting. TGU (pictured above) finally return to their true transnational ethno-funk roots, this time with some great Bulgarian assistance.

3. Mutamassik, Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works. Egyptian-Italian American d.j.’s collection of her finest work. Breaking down Arabic music, cutting it into hip-hop & drum ‘n’ bass.

4. Konono No 1, Congotronics. A total assault from Kinshasa: massively-distorted electric thumb piano and frenetic percussion. (Congotronics #2 now available from emusic.com.)

5. V.A., Guitars of the Golden Triangle: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar (Burma), vol. 2. Another Sublime Frequencies revelation: more wonderful surf and psychedelic rock from Southeast Asia. After hearing various S.F. collections from Thailand and Cambodia, these rockified versions of Myanmar cease to sound weird.

6. Baba Zula & King Tubby, Duble Oryantal. Despite the punned title and the presence of King Tubby, the dub is lowkey, just enough to lend the various Turkish folk-based genres presented here an edge, and an element of subtle strangeness.

7. V.A., Rough Guide to the Music of the Sahara. The revelation here is that the incredible gutbucket blues guitar of the legendary Malian group Tinariwen is not a one-off, but a much wider phenomenon. Check out Nayim Alal and Mariem Hassan.

8. Balkan Beat Box, Balkan Beat Box. New York based underground Israeli scenesters Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat lead a high energy romp that fuses not just the Balkans but also Israel and the Arab World, an Eastern Mediterranean with the boundaries--temporarily at least--blown apart.

9. MIA, Arular. This dancehall/grime blowup, with its Tamilese Sri Lanka tinges, is on everyone’s list, and I am compelled to concur. Although MIA’s references to violence and terrorism are controversial,she does namecheck the PLO--and gets away with it.

10. Khaled, Ya-Rayi. The US mix was released in 2005, but the producers almost wrecked it for me by putting the execrable “Love to the People” (English and Arabic versions) onto what, in the French version, was in part a return and tribute to the roots of rai, the Wahrani genre. So skip cuts 2 and 11 and all the “peace through music” bullshit.

Other favorites: I get lots of my music from emusic, and lately have been very keen on all the offerings from Tzadik (John Zorn’s project to expand our notions of Jewish music) and Doublemoon, which features all kinds of great Turkish music. I’ve also been into favela funk and reggaeton, like everyone else. Also into Ellen Allien (everything! this year’s release is Thrills), Laura Veirs’ Year of Meteors, and OOIOO’s gold & green.

Good news from the NYT: "Independent labels account for more than 18 percent of album sales this year - their biggest share of the market in at least five years, according to Nielsen SoundScan data...The independent sector as a whole already outsells two of the big four companies, Warner Music and EMI."

Tags: world music

Cover of Mutamassik and Morgan Craft's "Rough Americana" (designed by the nonist) 

Mutamassik, photo by Arthur Jaffa (from roughamericana.com)