Recommended music: mahraganat and North African vinyl

1. Another very fine radio show from the estimable Toukadime. Broadcast #18. Vintage North African tunes. (But no playlist yet: come on, pals!). And to show how eclectic their tastes are, they conclude the show with Herbie Mann's "Caravan"! Don't miss this show.

Added Oct. 20, 2014: Here's the playlist:

Tazi Boukhari & Aouicha: Comment Faire?
Guerouabi: El Barah
Mohamed Chemoum: JSK
Mohamed Jerrari: Ya Mariam
Mohamed Jerrari: El Karrita
Mohamed Bergam: Farah El Islam
Bouchaib Bidaoui: Khoutna Yal Islam
Albert Suissa: Dar El Baida
Haja Mina el Gharbaouia & Haja Khadouj Bent Barek, Marechal Kibou: Jini Wlanjik
Albert Suissa: Ya Rabi Tsmeh Fli Daj
Mustapha Nainia - Khouya Bouya

2. The latest Middle Eastern and North African playlist from The Guardian's music blog, by John Doran. Souad Abdallah (Iraq), Maurice Louca (Egypt), Fayçal Azizi (Morocco) -- all interesting, well worth a listen and pursuing further. But what really struck me was the live track from E.E.K. feat. Islam Chipsy -- in concert in London on October 12. This is mad mad mahraganat music, and I've http://www.weather.com/weather/today/Fayetteville+AR+72701:4:USblogged about Islam Chipsy in the past. (Here, for instance, though one of the vids has vanished.) Check out what Doran has to say about them, the 'preternaturally talented keyboard player Islam Chipsy, flanked by drummers Khaled Mando and Islam Tata,' who have been driving crowds in Bristol, London and Newcastle wild. "In Cairo, the three-piece are usually hired to play large outdoor wedding celebrations and their sound has developed in tandem with a need to kickstart parties while often contending with battered old PA systems. Now, through playing indoors through really powerful rigs, their sound has morphed into something that is bordering on overwhelming. The tightly syncopated rhythmical assault is in a lot of ways analogous to carnival or marching musical forms such as soca, New Orleans second-line drumming, dancehall and calypso. However, these beats are played at hyperspeed by two drummers who can switch styles and tempos without dropping a beat, adept at providing a rigid framework for a virtuoso keyboard player whose individual technique includes firing out bewilderingly fast blasts of tone clusters deployed by punching, slapping and karate-chopping his keyboard at such a frightening speed that his hands become a blur of movement. A truly unique experience."

And now: check out the vid, and see whether Doran's enthusiasm isn't warranted.

3. John Doran also has a piece in Vice about the Cairo Liberation Front, a Dutch trio who make up a dance party unit that plays mahraganat. The article title describes what they do as "Wedding Dance Rave," which is certainly as good a synonym for mahraganat as the other synonyms in use, techno shaabi and electro shaabi. There's a mixtape of new (at least I guess new) mahraganat here as well, so download, listen, enjoy, start your own dance party unit if you dare.

More (free) cool music: Moroccan Street; For Stuart Hall; Egyptian trip-hoppy Nadah El Zhazly; more mahraganat

 
1. Thanks to Tim Abdellah Fuson and his invaluable blog Moroccan Tape Stash, a link to samples from the Moroccan Field Recordings at the Pitt Rivers Museum. The recordings in question were made in 1961 by an Oxford University "expedition." And Tim does us the favor of describing and adding his own keen insights into these recordings.

2. Nabeel Zuberi, author of, among other things, Sounds English: Transnational Popular Music (2001, University of Illinois Press), has done a wonderful mixtape in tribute to the late Stuart Hall. As you would expect, it's very political, transnational Caribbean, etc. And illuminating -- I was not familiar with most of the material, except for Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth's "Good Life" and Linton Kwesi Johnson's "Reggae Fi' Peach." And I was familiar with some of the artists. And I loved these lines from a great track by Eddy Grant, "Living on the Front Line":

Me, no want nobodys money
There lord they sugar me no want to see
Me, no want to shoot Palestines
Oh I have land, oh I have mine

3. Thanks to Sherine for alerting me to this article in Mada Masr about Egyptian singer Nadah El Shazly, who I had never heard of. The article doesn't mention it, but the clear influence, at least as far as "Western" sources, seems to be trip-hop, of early to mid nineties vintage. Particularly on the songs "Shorbet Rosas" and "Ghaba." (Check them out on El Shazly's Soundcloud page.) They also remind me of the work of Lebanese group Soapkills (vocals, Yasmine Hamdan), who I think wore their trip-hop influences on their sleeve. There is more going on than that, of course, and El Shazly is capable of other sounds as well, as in her collaboration "Athar Nowaa" with Egyptian rapper El Rass.

4. And Cairo Liberation Front (who are Dutch) have a new mahraganat mixtape, available here. With music from Islam Chipsy and Sadat & Alaa Fifty Cent and more.

Enjoy.

mahraganat fatty: Hamboullah

There is a side to Egypt's mahraganat (electro shaabi) scene that is not likely to be exported, or to even get much outside exposure. This guy: Hamboullah.

Why won't he? Beer belly. Balding. He doesn't look like a rock star. (Compare him say to MC Sadat.) But check it out: as of this posting, over 1.7 million views. He's popular enough in Egypt. And amazing. (Thanks to Hammer for pointing him out to me.)

The Playlist from The Guardian: Mahraganat mixtape and Saudi black metal and more

I really cannot recommend enough this recent post by John Doran on The Guardian's Playlist series. He covers a lot of interesting material, but I was most moved by the mahraganat mixtape and, much more revelatory, the black metal from Saudi group Al-Namrood.

First of all, Egyptian mahraganat artists Vigo, Sadat, Knka and Diesel were in London in January and they recorded a 48 minute set, with Kode9 lurking. They collaborated with Faze Miyake, Kode9, and Artwork in producing it. (You can not only view but you can also download the set.)

And then there is the mixtape produced in Cairo with the same artists with the collaboration of Mumdance. You can read about it, and download it here, and this is the set list:

Mumdance Mahraganat mix ميكس مامدانس للمهرجانات 
01. Cairo traffic introduction مقدمة زحمة القاهرة
02. Mumdance feat. Figo - 100 Copies Vocal مامدانس وفيجو - صوت ١٠٠ نسخة
03. Dezel -  Music That Will Make You Dance Like Crazy ديزل- مزيكة هترقص بجنون توزيع الديزل استوديو (يلاطرب)المدفعجية
04. Alaa Fifty, Kanaka & Dezel  - Mahragan Anjax Snyega علاء فيفتي، وكنكا، وديزل - مهرجان أنجكس
05. Dezel, Kanaka & Figo - Kolo Edo Fooooa (Eskimo Remix) ديزل، وكنكا، وفيجو - كله إيده فوق (ريمكس إسكيمو)
06. Mumdance feat. Sadat, Alaa Fifty, Kanaka & Dezel - Cairo 8 Bar مامدانس مع سادات، وعلاء فيفتي، وكنكا، وديزل - بار القاهرة
07. Knka & Dezel - Untitled كنكا وديزل - بدون عنوان
08. Pinch & Islam Chipsy feat. Sadat - Untitled بينش وإسلام شيبسي مع سادات - بدون عنوان
09. Mumdance feat. Sadat - Take Time (Salam City Freestyle) مامدانس مع السادات -  (فري ستايل مدينة السلام)
10. Dezel & Kanaka - Untitled ديزل وكنكا - بدون عنوان
11. Sadat, Alaa Fifty, Dezel, & Kanaka - Untitled سادات، وعلاء فيفتي، وديزل، وكنكا -

And second, there is that Saudi black metal band. Black metal: not my cup of tea. But these guys (who record in total secret) mix in oud and qanun and derbouka and ney with the metal guitar and bass and drum, and the results are pretty amazing. So go read about them and check out the Youtube vid posted by The Guardian, but also check out this one:

And then go buy some of their music on iTunes or emusic or whatever. 

There is much more discussed here by Danon, but these were my faves.

Even more mahraganat (electro shaabi) photos

This set from David Degner. And focusing this time on the Tamanya Fil Meya ("Eight Percent") crew from Matariya. (And again, no mention at all of the January 25, 2014 massacre in Matariya. Sheesh.)

In any case, great photos. I particularly love the one above, featuring Oka and Ortega at some kind of (staged?) pink wedding.

Mahragan: Excellent photos from Mosa'ab Elshamy

 Sadat and tuk-tuk in Sadat City (Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Mosa'ab Elshamy is one of the best, maybe the best, photographers in Egypt to emerge into global fame since the events at Tahrir in January-February 2011. Rolling Stone magazine has just published a set of his photos on Egypt's mahragan (AKA electro-shaabi) scene, and they are stunning. (There is text as well, unattributed.)

Mahragan in Rolling Stone? Yep, the genre is getting a level of international reputation and cred that is remarkable. It's a testimony both to the creativity and quality of the music as well as the interest that the so-called Arab Spring and its culture spawned in the West. 

I'm not sure I like this description of the phenom: "the country's underground electro-rap uprising." Why "uprising"? Was rap, which Rolling Stone compares it to, an "uprising"? What did it overthrow? This issue, moreover, begs the question, not addressed in the text that accompanies the photos -- what is the relation between mahragan and politics in Egypt today, ever since Rabaa massacre of August 2013, the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the military coup, and the emergence of the Sisi phenomenon? What about the fact that, on the third anniversary of the launch of the January 25 (political) uprising, 21 people protestors were killed in al-Matariya, one of the strongholds of mahragan, the popular quarter of the Eight Percent crew (Wizza, Ortega and Oka)? 

Really, you'd think that at least some readers of the mag would want to know...

One more quibble: I keep insisting that the genre should be called mahragan (sing.) not mahraganat (plural). Someone please tell me why I'm wrong.

In any case, the photos are great, take a look. 

And you can see more of Mosa'ab Elshamy's photos on flickr, and follow him on twitter via @mosaaberizing.

Matariya Massacre January 25, 2014 + Mahragan + The Holy Family

Reading about the events of January 25, 2014, the three year anniversary of the launch of the Egyptian uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, I came across casualty figures. The first stats I saw were these (in Arabic, from Shorouk News, January 26), which give a total of 53. I noticed that a lot of the casualties seemed to be from al-Matariya, a popular quarter in the north of Cairo. I counted, and the total was 21. A more recent accounting from WikiThawra gives a total of 89 dead, 28 of them from al-Matariya.

I posted the early figure of 21 on Facebook, and my FB friend Alex posted as a comment this video of the events at al-Matariya, which is titled the "al-Matariya Massacre."

It shows a very large crowd of demonstrators, at Maidan al-Matariya, and lots of Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) banners. (I've since learned that Matariya was one of two sites of MB demonstrations in Cairo on January 25, the other being Alf Maskan in Ain Shams. In Alf Maskan, according to WikiThawra, 32 died in confrontations with the security forces.) The young men who seem to be leading chants at the demo, shown early in the video, don't look like your typical Ikhwan members, but rather, like prototypical fans of mahragan (electro shaabi) music. Then you see confrontations between demonstrators and the security (who are not visible, you just hear shots being fired). And then, quite gruesome footage of casualties being carried from the lines of confrontation to (rudimentary) medical care. Quite gripping and shocking footage.

On twitter, I came across this photo of damage done to a wall of the shop by the firing of the security forces. You wonder what sort of ammunition they were using...

I've hunted around and been somewhat surprised that there has been very little coverage in English (or other European languages, as far as I can tell) of these events. One guesses because they happened in a popular quarter, which is far from the places that the Western media ever hangs out in, unlike Tahrir Square, which is very accessible. Al-Matariya is off the beaten path, like all of Cairo's popular quarters. One guesses as well that the absence of the usual subjects of Western coverage (young liberals/revolutionaries with Western education) is responsible for the lack of coverage. Finally, it was a Muslim Brotherhood organized demo, which is just not as sexy as a secular demo.

And yet al-Matariya is not, in fact, entirely unknown to the Western media. It's the 'hood of the celebrated mahragan (electro shaabi) posse, Eight Percent (Tamaniya fil-Miyya), composed of vocalists Wizza, Ortega and Oka. They're responsible for many great mahragan songs, including "Ana Aslan Gamid" (I'm Really Hard). This video, as of this writing, had been viewed by over 1,315,000 people.

These Matariya homies have received a great deal of publicity in both Egypt and abroad since 2011, including from yours truly, writing in Middle East Report, more recently for the Norient Musicfilm Festival 2014, and several times on this blog. They're among the mahragan stars featured in Hind Meddeb's fine documentary, Electro Chaabi, which screened at the Norient festival.

Al-Matariya is also an important pilgrimage site for Eastern Christians. The Holy Family is said to have stopped at al-Matariya village -- whose name is said to come from the latin Mater, for the Virgin Mary. (It was part of the area of the ancient city of Heliopolis, destroyed at the time of the Persian invasion in 525 BC.) Jesus is said to have used a staff that he took from Joseph, broken it into pieces, planted them, and then dug a well which made the pieces of wood take root and grow into a balsam tree. Mary (in the story about these events in the Qur'an -- not sure what verse) is said to have used the sweet-smelling water of the well (because of the balsam tree) to wash the clothes of Jesus, and so the well is known as the Tree of the Holy Virgin. A sycamore tree was planted on the site of the balsam in 1672, and a shoot of this tree still remains til today. 

Because Mary and Jesus are venerated in the Muslim tradition, and particularly in its popular versions (although Muslims do not believe in the virgin birth), both Muslims and Christians make pilgrimage til today to the shrine of Mary's tree. There are also a Jesuit Holy Family Church and a Coptic Virgin Mary Church at the site.

(A good source on the Holy Family in Egypt is Otto F.A. Meinardus' In the Steps of the Holy Family, 1963.)

The Holy Family visited Matariya because they were fleeing a massacre...

Mahragan (electro sha'abi) at the Norient Musikfilm Festival, Bern, Jan. 9-11, 2014

I was asked to write the program notes on electro sha'abi (better known in Egypt as mahragan) for the 2014 Norient Musikfilm Festival, and they were just published today. You can read them here in English, and for the first time, something I wrote has also been translated into German, which you can read here.

The Festival program is very exciting, and I really wish I could attend. (But there is that cash flow problem...).

On the mahragan/electro sha'abi front, the festival features a very fine documentary on the mahragan scene, Hind Meddeb's Electro Chaabi. Here's a trailer:

Plus there is a Cairo Electro Sha'abi Club Night, featuring (live!) the mahragan stars MC Sadat and MC 'Alaa 50 Cent with DJ Ramy from Cairo, plus the Dutch electro sha'abi dj's Cairo Liberation Front. Very exciting.

 

MC Sadat

The festival will also screen the terrific film about Algerian shaabi (very very different from Egypt's electro shaabi!) and the recent reunion and tour of Jewish and Muslim shaabi musicians, El Gusto.

Plus films about Pussy Riot and the cultural scene around Mexico's narcotraficantes.

If you are anywhere near Bern you should go!

"I'm Stoned" by MC Sadat and Figo (Mahragan)

I'm stoned, I'm drunk...Stoned, drunk...Dear Mr. weed dealer/Give me two bags/Cuz I invited my friends/For a beer and two joints.

Mahragan in Beirut (Sadat and DJ Amr 7a7a)

 (The Daily Star/Hasan Shaaban)

Sadat and Amr 7a7a made a "surprise" appearance at the Home Works 6 forum on May 15 in Beirut. "Unassailably cool," writes Jim Quilty in The Daily Star.

Read more about Home Works and mahragan here.

godfather of mahragan ('Adawiya)

via CULTILAX

And here is one of his best tracks.

Leila Fadel of NPR on mahragan

I missed it, she covered mahragan (which she calls electro shaabi), as well as rocker Ramy Essam and graffiti artist Ganzeer, on September 4, 2012. She mentions Alaa Fifty, Amr Haha (7a7a) and Ahmed Vigo [the NPR transcript says: "Achmed (unintelligible)"]. It's a very short report, it doesn't tell us much we don't already know (other than the fact that mahragan vocalists are called "mike men" -- I need to check this), but it's basically on target.

And folks, there is more mainstream media coverage of mahragan in the offing. I can feel it.

mahragan (electro cha3bi) mixtape

Courtesy Cairo Liberation Front, who call the genre Electro Cha3bi. If I could read Dutch I could figure out more about who these folks are. Generation Bass says they are "two dudes from Tillburg." Names: Joost Heijthuisen and Yannnick Verhoeven.

They like to wear kufiyas, it seems, when they DJ.

Check them out on Facebook. If you read Dutch, tell me more.

I also wish I knew more, or anything, really, about the artists on the mixtape. Maybe someone will do that work too. (Except #26, Oka and Ortega, of the famous Eight Percent crew, straight outta Matariya.)

You can access it 3 ways.

1: on Soundcloud.

2. on youtube:



 3. and best of all, as a download. Here.

Enjoy.

DJ Islam Chipsy live (mahragan)

Great short vid of mahragan (AKA 'techno shaabi' or 'electro shaabi') artist DJ Islam Chipsy working his keyboard magic, in a popular quarter in Cairo.





This is a great one too.