Arabian Travels: A Six Degrees Collection

Amazon.com
The latest installment in the Six Degrees globe-trotting travel compilation series--which also includes Latin Travels, Asian Travels, and the recent African Travels--Arabian Travels delivers 10 essential tracks that fuse the best of contemporary dance music with traditional North African and Middle Eastern music. A mix of danced- and tranced-up tracks by both native-born musicians and those that travel via studio (mostly Europeans), this disc offers nothing but highlights.

Global groove pioneers Banco de Gaia showcase the previously unreleased "Sakarya," a fabulously unfolding groove set against a wailing Islamic vocal track and other ghostly voices. The Austrian duo dZihan & Kamien contribute the bass-heavy "Just You & I," with rock-steady beats trumped by the shrill drone of a Middle Eastern orchestra. Arabic Breakbeats' churning "Blue Turban" blends a high-flying flute melody over funky bass, while the long-standing nomadic German trio Dissidenten's "Telephone Arab" (remixed by Shantel) is a shifting blend of percussion, processed voices, violin, and orchestra.

Other tracks by Acid Queen, Euphoria, Fifth Sun, Karsh Kale, Dahmane el Harrachi, and Ekova all help fill in the picture of an enormously complex and rich musical and cultural part of the world. From Turkey through Morocco, with stops in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and all parts in between, the 10 artists on Arabian Travels gracefully groove together, proving along the way that music overcomes all barriers. --Carl Hanni

Product Description
Middle, Near Eastern and North African musical vibes mixed with ambient, electronic and dance grooves. Featuring tracks and remixes from Banco de Gaia, Dahmane El Harrachi, Shantel, Karsh Kale, Ekova and others Arabian Travels explores the mesmerizing sounds of Arabian music and its influence on electronic, ambient and dance music. Drawing upon the international perspective of innovators like dZihan & Kamien, Arabic Breakbeats, Euphoria and Fifth Sun, Arabian Travels documents new sounds inspired by the Arabian Diaspora.

Arabian Travels: A Six Degrees Collection

Tracks:

Toires - San (featuring Natacha Atlas)
Mercan Dede - Nar I Ney
Eastenders - Tender
Makyo - Shalale
Jef Stott - Funky Nawari (featuring Reda Darwish)
Christophe Goze - Ja Vidi
Kaya Project - Twin Soul
Esoterica - Allisallah
Samsara Sound System - Gatha
Azadeh Abi and Holmes Ives - Bedooneh Pashimoni

Album Description

In this sequel to one of Six Degrees' best selling compilations, the label once again documents the extraordinary power and far-reaching influence of music from the Near and Middle East, and North Africa. Arabian Travels 2 explores the mesmerizing sounds of Arabic music and its influence on electronic, ambient, dance and dub music.

Critical praise for the first volume of Arabian Travels:

"While albums of a similar nature fall into a clichéd Eastern trip, Arabian Travels is genuine in its approach without over-producing songs to an unrecognizable level. Gorgeous and decadent." -Ottawa X-Press

"[This album] is a collection of studio-made dance tracks that mesh Middle Eastern elements with a synthetic dance-floor pulse... The hybrids find a middle ground where neither side is stifled - the kind of collaboration that could now be threatened by a new xenophobia." -New York Times

Customer Reviews:

Great Arabic club music.......2004-11-28

Six Degrees is my favorite world beat music label because they consistently have cutting edge world music, music of high quality that breaks all the boundaries, mixing sounds from all over the place. In this compilation of music centered around the Middle East and North Africa (soundwise, not necessarily where the musicians are from), you get a CD of ten songs with a good dance beat and rich in Middle Eastern sounds, but very modern, perfect for dancing in a high-tech club. The tempo of all but a couple of songs is medium-slow or slow, but in most songs the beat is heavy and certain, giving you something solid to move your feet to. The songs are mostly instrumental; when vocals are present, they are mostly used as instrumental ornaments rather than to sing lyrics. The label describes the album as one that "explores the mesmerizing sounds of Arabic music and its influence on electronic, ambient, dance, and dub music."

The album opens with "Sanati" by Toires featuring Natacha Atlas on vocals. Natacha Atlas is my favorite Arabic singer, so I'm glad to hear her voice opening up this album! My favorite song on this album, by far, is "Nar I Ney" by Mercan Dede. This is 9 1/2 minutes of dancing bliss! After I get through dancing to this energetic piece, I am out of breath! (Well, I am out of shape, but still, you get the picture.) "Allisallah" by Esoterica is a rather fun piece. "Funky Nawari" by Jef Stott featuring Reda Darwish lives up to its name in some funky Arabic dance material. Christophe Goze's song "Ja Vidi" is on this album and also found on the compilation album Bellylicious, which, like this album, is also one of my favorite albums of 2003. I've already got "Ja Vidi" on a mix tape, as well as "Allisallah" and of course, "Nar I Ney." "Twin Soul" by Kaya Project has a heavy jazz influence to it. The last two songs of the album wind things down: "Gatha" by Samsara Sound System takes a step from downtempo dance closer to ambient, while the closing track "Bedooneh Pashimoni" by Azadeh Abi and Holmes Ives goes completely ambient, with a dark, cloudy day sound.

When listening to Amazon's samples of this album, I recommend tracks #1 and #5 for this because they give the best representation of what the album sounds like. The songs on this album are club length, clocking in between 5 and 10 minutes long, so on the other samples, all you get is the introduction, before the song really gets going.

This is an excellent collection of enchanting, danceable, downbeat, mostly instrumental sounds that provide a pleasurable listening and dancing experience!

Arabian Travels.......2003-10-17

The regions represented on this latest installment of the Six Degrees Travel Series - France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Turkey, Egypt - read like a cross-section of the world map. But isn't this Arabian Travels 2? If there is one thing you cannot say about a Six Degrees release is that it is geographically constrained. For someone whose ears have not been exposed to Arabic/Middle Eastern music beyond that of Chebs Khaled and Mami, this was a great (albeit, electronic) primer to the diverse melodies that modern 'Arabian' music exponents can create. Its a shame I missed the first volume. A blunder I will soon make up for.

The first two tracks are pretty mellow and exotic excursions into dub and ambient territory. Montreal DJ Arkin Allen who records under the name Mercan Dede mixes Sufi mysticism with strings and electronic flourishes on "Nar I Ney." Next up is "Tender" which just bubbles with deep bass grooves and Middle Eastern strings to give us seven minutes of pure laidback chillout bliss, all courtesy of Stefan Müller (DJ Eastenders) who brought us the equally excellent Orientation 1 & 2. According to the label website, Makyo's "Shalale" was written with belly dancers in mind and once the percussion starts getting desperate at 5:09, all you wanna do is follow along to the handclaps that close out the gorgeous tune. Things do get a little more uptempo from the next track onwards which features the masterful percussion of Reda Darwish. Ever since Advent reviewed his album, I've been feenin' for a listen of Christophe Goze and I sure-as-hell was not disappointed. dZihan & Kamien now have major competition, at least in my book. Middle Eastern electronica at its finest.

The party doesn't stop on this one. One listen to this set of tunes and you'll be convinced that the Arabian Massive is giving its Asian counterpart a run for its money. Play this way loud at your next global jet set gathering and don't forget to take a toke...of the sheesha, that is.

Arabian Travels: A Six Degrees Collection
Average customer rating:

Wonderful Arabic/House Music

I love this cd

Groovy arabian beats

Worth getting but could've been much better

What I wanted!

Arabian Travels: A Six Degrees Collection
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Six Degrees
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Trance | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | International | Styles | Music
Arabic | Middle East | International | Styles | Music
Six Degrees Records | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
General | International | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Arabian Travels, Vol. 2: A Six Degrees Collection

Asian Travels, Vol. 1: A Six Degrees Collection

African Travels: A Six Degrees Collection

Asian Travels 2: Six Degrees Collection

Latin Travels: Six Degrees Collection

ASIN: B00005O7OT
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Tracks:

Kamtarie - Fifth Sun
Sakarya - Banco De Gaia
Just You & I - dZihan & Kamien
Indus Railway - Karsh Kale
Ya Rayah - Dahmane El Harrachi
Blue Turban - Arabic Breakbeats
Telephone Arab - Dissidenten
Sabura - Ekova
Sema - Acid Queen
1001 Dreams - Euphoria

Amazon.com

The latest installment in the Six Degrees globe-trotting travel compilation series--which also includes Latin Travels, Asian Travels, and the recent African Travels--Arabian Travels delivers 10 essential tracks that fuse the best of contemporary dance music with traditional North African and Middle Eastern music. A mix of danced- and tranced-up tracks by both native-born musicians and those that travel via studio (mostly Europeans), this disc offers nothing but highlights.

Album Description

Middle, Near Eastern and North African musical vibes mixed with ambient, electronic and dance grooves. Featuring tracks and remixes from Banco de Gaia, Dahmane El Harrachi, Shantel, Karsh Kale, Ekova and others Arabian Travels explores the mesmerizing sounds of Arabian music and its influence on electronic, ambient and dance music. Drawing upon the international perspective of innovators like dZihan & Kamien, Arabic Breakbeats, Euphoria and Fifth Sun, Arabian Travels documents new sounds inspired by the Arabian Diaspora.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Arabic/House Music.......2006-11-25

I love this Cd- I love downtempo type music such as the Buddha Bar/Cafe Del Mar/Hotel Costes compilations. As a belly dancer I love arabic music with a downtempo twist, and this is it! If you like the Tantra Lounge CDs then you will really love this CD. The tempo is a faster and has somewhat more pronounced beats than the tantra lounge compilations. This CD is definitely dance worthy!!!

I love this cd.......2006-11-02

I love this cd. It is one of my top 10 favorites in world music. I slip this into my cd player and it stays there for weeks! I listen to hardcore music, goth and other world music. I highly recommend this cd.

Groovy arabian beats.......2005-10-05

I love the vocals in this album, and the drum beats in some of the songs are just heavenly. Banco De Gaia's #2 track is my favorite, but there are a number of other songs in this album that I never tire of. Play this in your party, and the dance floor will soon get crowded ...

Worth getting but could've been much better.......2005-09-18

Much like Stealth bombers blowing up their strategic civilian targets, these braindead techno beats destroy much classic Arabian tradition here. However about half of this collection is really spectacular and most dance worthy. My favorites are Katmarie, Ya Rayah, Telephone Arab, Sabura, and 1001 Dreams.This is well worth buying, you'll have to skip some tracks on the way but that's to be expected. Thumbs up here.

What I wanted!.......2005-06-08

Very good music... though when I first heard it expected it to be arabic-arabic, I have to admit that the second time was better, and it is better every time I hear it -especially Banco de Gaia and Ekova, who I know from my children.

One would assume that people my age (!) would not appreciate this sort of music, but I have to say that all the tracks have this techno kind of sound, gathered with traditional arabic tunes, and therefore, are the perfect mix between modern and traditional.

It has also given me the opportunity of listening to new sounds, which has inevitably made me open my mind -and ears- to new sounds, melodies and life!

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