Houdou Nisbi

Drum roll, please – and a sinewy horn line and psychedelic Moog squiggle – for the vinyl release of this 1985 cult classic, a spiritual jazz/world wig-out that springs off Arabic music into a melting pot of funk, jazz, boogie and Brazilian music. With a title translating as ‘Relatively Calm’ – a phrase officially used to describe the vibe in Lebanon in the ceasefire years of the civil war – Houdou Nisbi is nonetheless a wild slice of Lebanese history, a sonic kaleidoscope taking in everything from French chanson and samba and MPB to chorus-swollen power ballads (crazy-gorgeous opener ‘Bala Wala Chi’) and feel good soul-funk excursions (the outstanding ‘Bisaraha’).

Ziad Rahbani is a giant of Arabic music, and a scion of musical royalty: his father was composer/musician Assi Rahbani and his mother, incomparable Lebanese diva Fairuz. A pianist, composer, producer and playwright as well as a self-professed communist and truth-to-power speaking activist, Rahbani is as prismatic as the groovy, funky, romantic Middle Eastern music that is showcased here. Singer Sami Hawat, a cracked-melisma marvel and long-term collaborator, enlivens several tracks including ‘Ma Tfel’ – which wraps Mozart’s Symphony 40 in G Minor in a sumptuous Balearic club anthem. Each track, however, is its own universe, in which you may want to stay a while. Oh, and that thudding sound? It’s the noise of crate-diggers swooning.