oud

Just taking a break from stoner rock for a bit to announce the Yemenese oud master Abdulatif Yagoub is in town for a gig tonight. I’ve written about them a few times and I’ve also helped secure a show here, Yagoub is a true artist and it’d be a pleasure to watch him perform with Smadj & Mehdi from Duoud

Another essential middle-eastern dub & electronic fusion album you’ve got to own is a joint project by DuOud & Abdulatif Yagoub. DuOud is an obvious play on “duo oud”, and consists of French Musicians Mehdi Habbab (Algeria) and Jean-Pierre Smadj (Tunisia) who I’ve heard before from his activities in Istanbul.

It was surprising to see middle eastern music on Berlin’s Staubgold which release electronic acts like Leafcutter John, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, To Rococo Rot. It turns out that Thilges ‘ second album on Staubgold is a commision by “Jeunesse“, which features 2 main guest artists, the Iraqi oud player Asim-Al Chalabi and Persian vocalist Zohreh Jooya and 4 other guests like the viola player Eyvind Kang.

Mad love to the Galapagos4 crew for Deejay OM and Mike Gao albums. Dhafer Youssef for a oud meets west ethnic jazz masterpiece, especially the part after the breakdown around 2nd minute is totally spectacular.

I had thought of following up Esbjoern Svensson Trio with Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen’s astounding album “Continuo” on Razdaz Records, but as you see a few posts got in the way. Avishai’s music feels familiar to me because he’s from Israel, that means he’s from the Middle East if you’re not skilled in geography and this album has many Middle Eastern tones going underneath his western jazz.