RFI: Proggy-sounding Arabic (Egyptian?) Music

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So I was toking some dank sheesha in this Egyptian hookah bar in Manhattan and there came on the stereo a mind-blowing song -- contemporary sounding but not with electronic beats, lots of doumbek work, big accordion solo in the middle, and several jarring prog-like shifts in the song. I think it might have been Egyptian, because the cafe was, but I don't imagine Egyptian people listen only to Egyptian music so it might not have been. Any idea what kind of music this could have been and where I can find some?

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 6 January 2005 04:59 (twenty years ago)

Uhm, yeah.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:08 (twenty years ago)

Not really though if it was contemporary sounding. A TON of Egyptian music has prog-like shifts.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

Actually, the best thing to do would be to ask. What was it that made you think it was contemporary? I could list a lot of stuff that kind of fits that description, but it's all pretty old.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

I did ask -- it was a tape the bartender's friend made from the radio.

I only thought it was contemporary because of the sound quality.

Can you recommend anything?

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:12 (twenty years ago)

I could just send you (along with others who have asked in the past) some of that older stuff, once I get done with my salsa mix making phase.

x-post.

Hmmm, well Abdel Halim Hafez's Hawel Teftakerni might fit. Oum Kalthoum's Alf Lyla or Men Agle Aynaila. Warda's Asmaouni. Lots of long Egyptian songs by the major singers in the 60s and 70s, really. Just about anything composed by Baligh Hamdi, and lots of things composed by Mohammed Abdel Wahab.

But if you can wait a little, I could send you something.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

I know that for me, Warda was more accessible at first than Oum Kalthoum, so if you are basically looking for that type of song, she might be a good starting point.

Do you remember anything about the singing? Did you like it?

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'm somewhat familiar with Oum Kalthoum, and what I heard in the bar didn't sound much like that. But if you want to send me stuff, that would be awesome -- do you mean via internet or mail?

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:19 (twenty years ago)

It was a male singer, very joyous, fast, raucous, but it's been a while (I meant to post this thread right when I heard it and didn't bother at the time).

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:20 (twenty years ago)

Could be Ahmed Adawaia, but I'm sure there are lots of other people it could be. He's pretty good though. More dance-oriented kind of music.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:22 (twenty years ago)

Do you know what Farid el Atrache sounds like? He has some very good upbeat songs. Quite a few of them sound obviously dated though.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

They're usually still good, but there are dead give-aways that they were recorded late 60s or early 70s.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, this sounded fairly well-recorded, probably not 60s or 70s unless we're talking about some masterful engineering.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:26 (twenty years ago)

It's really not enough information to go on. An accordion solo and lots of twists and turns are just too common.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:36 (twenty years ago)

And astounding doumbek playing doesn't help either? Can you tell me some genre names, at least? Maybe there's a comp I can check out or something.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:38 (twenty years ago)

Astounding doumbek playing is all over the place (though I think of it as more common in Lebanese and Syrian music).

I don't know genre names as well as I should, although, on the other hand, I'm not sure how much people pay attention to them. I guess it could be baladi which is more of an upbeat "street" sort of Egyptian style, but I have a feeling it's a very broad category. I don't really know what the Syrian/Lebanese stuff I'm thinking of would be called.

Seriously though, I don't know who would be playing in that style, without any programmed beats, these days.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:52 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to bed.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 6 January 2005 05:53 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Hmm, I'm really intrigued about what this could have been.

― baaderonixx, Thursday, 10 January 2008 15:23 (seventeen years ago)

seventeen years pass...

Aly Eissa has become alltime for me - Gouda Bar is my most listened to record in the last year

https://akuphone.bandcamp.com/album/gouda-bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_APFIxEm90

― bendy, Sunday, 23 November 2025 22:12 (yesterday)

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