March 27, 2006 | Posted by at 9:13 AM

No Calm Coffee For You

Safe, by Badawi

I was eating not-quite-samosas in a vaguely ethnic restaurants the other day, and they were playing something chill and electronic and Middle Eastern-ish. And the music was fine and relaxing and it went well with my chai and the paisley seat-covers.

But it doesn't have to be like that.*

Badawi - I Said Oblivion
Badawi - Moving Still

Dear goodness, this dude unnerves me so right. The first (free mp3 linked from the Asphodel site) is off his upcoming album Safe, which, if this is any indicator, shall be bananas. The second is off the ROIR-released and rock-solid Soldier of Midian.

Badawi is the multi-alias-ed Raz Mesinai, and you can read his bio here. But who needs bios when you've got goosebumps.

Safe comes out in America on April 7th.

*Nothing at all against chill-out comps or fusion food. Both swell. Just throwing some love to Raz and all the the web sites, dj's and producers that agree that "Middle Eastern" plus "urban" can equal way more than background music.

Comments

Very cool stuff.

Posted by: Mattly at March 27, 2006 3:38 PM

Sounds great. the second track is like more for my taste. I remember dead can dance for a while.

Posted by: bhlogiston at March 30, 2006 8:48 AM

Man o man, I love the frenetic violin thing when he starts really building it up. This reminds me so much of my favorite album by Kronos Quartet: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. It's short, and not as electronic as this, but the most emotional playing you'll ever hear. I'm definitely gonna pre-order this.

Posted by: Michael at March 31, 2006 2:43 PM

I actually thought I was listening to DAAU when I Said Oblivion came on. Except DAAU are not so much Middle Eastern urban, more European gypsy I'd say. Either way, slightly menacing, slightly manic violins are always great.

Posted by: em at April 1, 2006 5:56 AM

saw badawi w/marc ribot at Tonic in nyc a few years back.... excellent show

Posted by: bill at April 1, 2006 7:24 PM


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