Malayeen

Inspired by a love for the work of trailblazing Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid, Lebanese trio Malayeen employed a similarly bold approach to modernising traditional strains of Arabic music on their 2014 self-titled debut album. It now receives a vinyl repress. Khorshid’s influence is made explicit on namesake opener ‘Omar’, which sees electric guitar player Charbel Haber pay stylistic tribute to the master’s twanged Middle Eastern melodies. The exuberant ‘Najwa’ (named, like the album’s other tracks, for a legendary Egyptian belly dancer) offsets Arabic dance rhythms, organs and guitars with subtle electronics.

Elsewhere, the trio’s experimental roots take centre stage. ‘Nadia’. for instance, clouds Haber’s guitar twangs in swirls of electronic glitch rhythms and digital bleeps. The epic, near 18-minute ‘Samia’, meanwhile, pairs electronically treated accordion runs and the buzz of Middle Eastern synth harmonies with the slow drone of Kosmische-style rock guitars and the hypnotic barrelled rhythms of Khaled Yassine’s darbouka drums to create something headily atmospheric.