Nu Natacha Atlas

Natacha singingin Hindi might be fun

Something Dangerous lost me. Heard it perhaps three times and couldn't do it anymore. Shame really, because Ayeshteni hinted at a genuinely unique new direction, but then she went off and did some horrid American-stylee R&B nonsense. I wanted to make a cut-down version of the album but never got around to it.

Meh, buy Diaspora and Gedida instead.

so i just discovered this song i've been wondering what the hell it is, is Transglobal Underground w/Natacha Atlas

no idea what the song is called - i've gotten this far, please

but it's beautiful, her voice, i'm like whoa

thanks for listening.

I've been listening to "Foretold In The Language Of Dreams" which I was expecting to be Natasha goes dodgy new age from the cover, but no. Does what it says on the tin, very dreamy and atmospheric.

LOVING the new one!

This one?

Natacha Atlas & The Mazeeka Ensemble - Ana Hina

I used to love her, but her efforts to cross over seemed increasingly awkward to me. This one didn't have anything that stood out especially good or bad on first listen.

Yes that one. Not really a cross over album I'd say. Traditional arabic tunes done with a tango twist.

I'm surprised ILM cares so little about her

ILM is wrong. She is great. I shall have to look up this new album.

RS and sometimes others discuss her over on the Rolling Whirled Music threads

I haven't actually heard it, but judging from samples (and from seeing what she's covering), it seems very traditional as mentioned above. More like Rachi Taha's Diwan 2, except maybe more traditional. That tango twist was alraedy in a number of Arabic "classics" from the 40s and 50s (maybe earlier). I definitely didn't like the last one she put out.

OK, finally something that makes Spotify worthwhile. The entire back catalogue! I can fill in the gaps in my collection.

I've just realised that this is where my love of Arabic music comes from - and ultimately my current obsession with lots of the Anatolian Invasion stuff I've been killing lately. It's funny, every time I've listened to, like, Harem (Turkish Percussion group) or something, I keep thinking... "This reminds me of something..." and realising that this is what it reminds me of.

Still haven't bought any of her albums, I first heard her in the film 3-Iron several years ago if not a decade.

Just bumping to ask how her more recent stuff has been.

The recent Atlas albums I've heard leave me puzzled as to what her motivation is for what she's doing. She's putting out traditional material (sometimes actual covers) seemingly without attempting to reshape the tradition. It seems more like a preservationist project, but there are others on a preservation mission who I think do it better. Ghada Shbeir comes to mind (and I like the fact that she often performs with a stripped down ensemble).

I'm not saying any of it is really bad, but there's nothing there that I've wanted to return to. It just seems very redundant.

I think much more could be done to use electronics in a traditional Arab framework, but I haven't heard much along those lines that excites me. That's the sort of thing I would hope Atlas would do (if she's not going to do pop).

I was never that big of a fan of her poppier albums either, but I think the recombination of elements they were doing was more interesting than what I've heard from her more recent career.

I really wonder why she disappeared from my radar. Transglobal U. folks getting old and no longer hungry? Can't say I've listened intently since 2003, but I've the Mounqaliba remix comp and the Toires collab that indicate I was paying attention 7 years ago.

It seems like this sort of cross-cultural appropriation/celebration is more important now than ever.

Tired of "celebrating" this that and the other, tbh.