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RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT EVER WONDERED WHAT THE RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY ACTUALLY FEELS LIKE? RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT IS YOUR CHANCE TO WITNESS THE ACADEMY VIBE FIRSTHAND. RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT WELCOMES ACADEMY LECTURERS DJ ZINC AND YOUNG GURU, ACCLAIMED COMPOSER AND TRUMPET MASTER IBRAHIM MAALOUF AND LOCAL UNDERGROUND LEGEND FADI TABBAL FOR THREE JAM-PACKED DAYS OF LECTURES, WORKSHOPS AND LIVE CLUB NIGHTS AS 40 MUSICIANS FROM ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST GATHER IN DEDICATION TO ONE TASK: LET THE MUSIC DO THE TALKING.
THE ACADEMY
The Red Bull Music Academy is a world-travelling series of music workshops and festivals: a platform for those who shape our musical future. Two groups of 30 selected participants – producers, vocalists, DJs, instrumentalists and all-round musical mavericks from around the world – come together in a new musical metropolis each year for two weeks’ worth of recording sessions, lectures by musical luminaries and unforgettable late night jams. RBMA’s previous stops include Berlin, Toronto, London, Melbourne, Cape Town, and most recently, Madrid. For its 15th edition, the Academy will land in New York City this Autumn for five weeks’ worth of workshops, concerts, club nights and all-round musical extravaganzas held across the boroughs, keeping alive New York’s reputation as the birthplace of musical legacies. Over the last month, RBMA has put together a series of Infosessions, leading up to RBMA Bass Camp Beirut. Lecturers Marco Passarani, John Talabot, Ewan Pearson and Benji B landed in Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE for one-day workshops with selected local musicians, followed by explosive evening performances.
MAZEN KERBAJ ADDS HIS ARTISTIC TOUCH TO THIS YEAR’S RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT. COMICS AND MUSIC JOIN FORCES AS HE TAKES OVER THE ARTISTIC DIRECTION OF DRM
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LAST YEAR In Spring 2011, the RBMA Bass Camp brought together an eclectic group of talented musicians and artists from all across the world to take over Beirut’s Saifi Urban Gardens for three back-to-back days of intensive workshops, lectures and music-making. Established pioneers of the industry such as Soul II Soul’s legendary Jazzy B, jazz composer Toufic Farroukh, inventor of the VCS3 synthesizer Dr. Peter Zinovieff, and Beirut’s own alternative music hero, Zeid Hamdan, shared their industry insights, culminating in a mind-blowing night of live music at EM Chill.
ENTER “RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY – BASS CAMP” ON YOUTUBE TO WATCH A DOCUMENTARY FROM LAST YEAR’S RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT, DIRECTED BY MERASS SADEK.
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You’d think that after writing about music for millions of years, radio would be a cinch. Just play some records and chat about stuff. Easy. Er... not quite. The difference between writing about music and communicating radiophonically is like the difference – to paraphrase Antony and the Johnson’s delightful 2005 Mercury Prize acceptance speech – between oranges, spaceships and a potted plant.
IN THE AIR TONIGHT STARTING IN SEATTLE IN 2005, RBMA RADIO HAS GROWN INTO A VAST ONLINE ARCHIVE OF AUDIO TREATS THAT IS NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUR IPHONE. EMMA WARREN TUNES IN
I began to realise quite how different when I started doing radio back in 2006 at the Melbourne Academy. It was the first time I’d switched from typing on screen to standing in front of a microphone and I was game but nervous. Especially when the engineer casually mentioned three seconds before we went on air that we were broadcasting on the city’s main independent radio station. I thought it was only going out in the building. The radio was a smart addition to Academy runnings. I shared presenting duties with hip hop authority Jeff ‘Chairman’ Mao and Deviation don Benji B. We began creating radio shows, interviews and mixes that then went through some invisible, incremental massivisation. It would just have been us talking to ourselves were it not for the expert help of people like Gerd Janson, Running Back’s House Maestro, Karen P, formerly Gilles Peterson’s producer, and Grand Overseer Jan ‘Yannick’ Elver-
feld. There are now in excess of 2,500 shows on RBMA Radio, including what we call a ‘fireside chat’ with The Roots, a mix from Toronto by Theo Parrish and a live mix from Ricardo Villalobos, to mention just the three most currently streamed shows. You might get the Animal Collective talking about their favourite tunes, or DMZ’s Mala taking you on a sonic meander around his London. These days, it’s a serious collection of music that would take you lifetimes to listen to. That first time in Melbourne was a very funny experience. After Bristol junglist DJ Krust did his couch interview with Benji B (expertly covering both the expected ground, and Krust’s revelation that he was studying “hidden knowledge”), we invited him into the studio for a mix. I was sitting around the corner, tapping away on something or other, and waves of bass kept making my cup of tea wobble. Krust had brought the ground speakers up to head height, like the world’s biggest personal stereo, and it was so loud the engineer was wearing industrial headphones just to keep the noise out. Or at least down a little bit. Hip hop producer Just Blaze came in to reveal a love of ’90s Belgian rave, doing an impromptu performance of the rap from the ultimate Belgian hoover track, Dominator by Human Resource.
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The radio was now a regular feature of the Academy, something that allowed us to interview participants and lecturers, as well as getting guest mixes in. The studio manager in Toronto was in what you might call a bad place, tripping over cables and reaching volcanic levels of fury in 0-60-type timescales. The content was similarly hot. Benga hopped off the couch into the studio to record a mix with his hilariously scratched and battered dubplates; Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 stopped metaphorical traffic with his stories about layering 120 voices over each other on Temptation; and I realised that burning CDs of music to play while counting down the seconds before going live is a bad idea. The following year we broadcast live on local BCN radio, Scanner FM, with the first hour in English (sorry, local Catalan speakers, I’m just going to roll in and talk to you in English for a bit), then the second in Catalan. We did a funny little handover between myself and the local presenters before switching up the linguistics, but it worked. I spent most of that Academy trying to find a way to play Charles B’s stupidly energetic acid house tune Lack of Love. I also realised that opening with Count Ossie’s mystical Rasta album Grounation was just showing off. RBMA RADIO BROADCASTS LIVE ON RBMARADIO.COM
05 /22
Just a couple of years ago, a rumour swept the Internet that surely felt like a knife between the ribs to any fan of vinyl. Technics, the brand that revolutionised the art of DJing back in the ’70s with the 1200 and 1210 turntables, was due to cease production.
THE VINYL COUNTDOWN? RUMOURS OF THE DEATH OF THE TECHNICS TURNTABLE HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED. BUT WITH INNOVATIONS VYING FOR THE ATTENTION OF MODERN DJS, IS THE TURNTABLE ON THE WAY OUT? AND IF SO, ASKS LOUIS PATTISON, WHAT NEXT?
The rumour was traced back to the New Zealand DJ shop DMC World, which had posted on its product page the news that Panasonic had announced that production of the SL-1200 and SL-1210 was due to halt at the end of this month. The story was picked up by the Australian dance music website Inthemix.com.au, which interviewed Panasonic product manager Ian North. His was a gloomy prognosis – one that spelt bad news not just for the brand itself, but for the future of vinyl DJing. “It is a sad day today, but due to low sales globally in analogue turntables a decision to stop production has been made on Technics turntables,” he explained. “For Australia this means we will receive our last shipment in March.” It seemed the end was near. But North had jumped the gun. Just days later, he recanted, calling his statement “premature”, and Panasonic’s Japan division issued a typically brief but to-the-point statement. “As a major global business, Panasonic keeps all of its operations under constant review. However, there are no current plans to discontinue the Technics brand,” it said.
Such a brief, opaque communiqué is typical of Technics. They have seldom marketed, for the simple reason they haven’t needed to: the product sold because it was good – the best. A DJ’s ability to move a crowd is always limited by the quality of the equipment they’ve been saddled with. Which is to say that innovations in DJing are driven by technology – or, more specifically, what the technology will allow you to do. Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s book, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, tells the story of the DJs who built their own revolutionary set-ups. There was Terry Noel of ’60s New York society club Arthur, who wowed his chi-chi audience by mixing records into one another, despite a deeply primitive kit – three record players and a volume control. And early disco DJ Francis Grasso, who learnt to beatmix by ear without the ability to alter a tempo, and perfected the slip-cue to bring in a record right on the bar. Back in the day, though, a great DJ was one who could overcome the limited technology of the age – either through ingenuity of set-up, or practiced feats of skill. All this changed in October 1972 when Matsushita announced the new release in its Technics range. The SL-1200 was intended as a hi-fi turntable, but with its sturdy build, direct drive and rotary pitch control
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– used to speed up or slow down a record with precision – it opened up a whole new universe of possibilities to the aspirant disc jockey. One such vinyl junkie was Grandmaster Flash – aka Joseph Saddler, an electronics student from the South Bronx, who was looking for the ideal turntable to play out at neighbourhood block parties. “We had anything from Fisher-Price to Magnavox. Pioneer had a turntable, but they all didn’t pass my test,” he explains. “That’s where my electronics knowledge came into play. State of inertia versus torque (the moment of force) for the turntables, spherical versus elliptical for the needles. Then I started reading the specs for the needles, the grams for the tracking. It became a science.” The traditional belt-driven turntables, with their big rubber bands and weak motors, were clunky and any attempt to manipulate records quickly led to breakage. Then Saddler spotted an unfamiliar model in a shop window. “After going through countless turntables my theory was that from the state of inertia, if it took the turntable one whole turn to start up that meant the torque was weak. If it took half a turn that was better, but it still wasn’t good enough. But this turntable went up to full speed in a quarter of a turn.”
Ideal for mixing and scratching, the Technics 1200 and its 1978 update, the SL- 1200MK2 – which replaced the rotary pitch control with the now familiar slider – became a global brand, shifting over three million units worldwide. Now recognised as a design classic, a model is on show in London’s Science Museum, while Grandmaster Flash’s Technics turntable sits in the National Museum of American History. There’s no doubt that the technology is changing. The rise of music as something digitised, not physical, is transforming DJ culture just as surely as it changed the industry as a whole. The big musical news story of 2000 was that for the first time ever, sales of turntables had exceeded that of guitars. Now turntables themselves have undergone a sales slump, and the market has exploded with a new range of DJ tools, from CDJ drives to vinyl emulation software to pocket-size mixers like the Tonium Pacemaker, all out to exploit the niche that became a mass market. So what is the future for vinyl? It’s clear there’s been a huge sea change in DJ culture over the past decade. Yet one thing you notice is that no one – even those charmed by the new possibilities tossed up by new digital innovations – seriously thinks vinyl has had its day. “There will still be a place for people who just won’t
digitise, who won’t give up playing vinyl,” says Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers. “I’ve got a basement full of the stuff.” Ali Renault, of synth-pop duo Heartbreak, agrees. “I use Ableton to compose, and I used to DJ with it, but after six months I found myself missing the vinyl. The thing I like about it is the physical aspect, being able to touch the vinyl, look at the grooves in the record and see when the breakdowns are and what have you. It’s the physicality of it really, putting the needle on the format itself.” Vinyl is social, too. “When someone comes up to you and says, ‘Hey, what’s this tune playing?’, you want to go to your box, pull out a sleeve and show them, not bellow it down their ear,” says Renault. You might be able to find Technics turntables in a museum, but a museum piece in its own right? Those days, you can be sure, are still a long way off.
“THERE
WILL STILL BE A PLACE FOR PEOPLE WHO JUST WON’T DIGITISE, WHO WON’T GIVE UP PLAYING VINYL” ED SIMONS (CHEMICAL BROTHERS)
07 /22 1950s, US pedal steel player Pete Drake released an album called Forever which incorporated a very similar “talking steel guitar effect” that turned his voice into a mournful whine. Drake played pedal steel guitar on albums for a host of wellknown musicians, including Bob Dylan and George Harrison. It was during the recording of Harrison’s All Things Must Pass that another session musician, Peter Frampton, saw Drake using the talk box. This would prove a turning point in Frampton’s career. Despite success with both The Herd and Humble Pie, his solo efforts hadn’t fared as well. However, his luck changed after being given one of the first high-powered talk boxes by its inventor, Bob Heil, as a Christmas present in 1973. He would subsequently use it on his Frampton Comes Alive tour, and the subsequent live album, ’76’s talk box-saturated Frampton Comes Alive!, became the bestselling LP of that year in America. However, the godfather of the talk box is, without doubt, Zapp’s Roger Troutman, whose keyboard talk box pretty much defined the West Coast’s G-funk sound. He was asked to provide robo-pimp croons on Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle and 2-Pac’s California Love. When Roger died in 1999, his nephew Clet sang Amazing Grace through a talk box at his funeral.
Do you know what? I’m a sucker for vocal manipulation in music. From the corny vocoder raps of freestyle to the time-stretched vocals of early ’90s jungle to the helium-soul beats of Kanye West, I just can’t get enough of it. But there is one vocal effect in pop that is I cannot stand, and that’s Auto-Tune.
MISGUIDED BY VOICES WHERE ONCE ELECTRONIC VOICE MANIPULATION WAS A THING OF OTHERWORLDLY BEAUTY, THE UBIQUITY OF AUTO-TUNE HAS LED TO A GENERATION OF ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS SOUNDALIKES, SAYS JOHN MCDONNELL
The heavy-handed use of Auto-Tune in pop was first witnessed on a major scale in Cher’s trance monstrosity Believe in 1998. It’s since been used in every scene from dancehall to bhangra to grime, and from around 2004 it has snowballed in pop music. It is the vocal effect that just won’t go away, which is nuts considering how awful it sounds 99% of the time. When Tinchy Stryder adopts it he resembles Kermit the Frog’s nephew Robin, and when Lil Wayne has a go he sounds like he’s gargling radioactive milk. It is time, I believe, for something different. Now, two vocal-manipulation devices I do want to see returning are the vocoder and the talk box. Snoop Dogg appeared in the video for his 2007 hit Sensual Seduction with a keyboard talk box, but listening to the song it’s clear he’s using Auto-Tune to distort his voice, so that doesn’t count. One of the earliest musical applications of the talk box was by Alvino Rey in 1939. The American bandleader used a carbon throat microphone (developed for military pilots) to modulate notes played on his electric guitar. In the
And the vocoder? Well, since Bruce Haack’s 1969 creation, the Farad – an early musical application of the voicedistorting instrument – the vocoder has been used by a vast array or artists, including Sly Stone, ELO and Giorgio Moroder through to ’80s electro heads Jonzun Crew and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Kraftwerk first used a custom-built prototype called the Musicoder in 1973. Their sound would inspire Neil Young to make his electronic album Trans in 1982. On Trans, Young incorporated the effect to make a sound that was serene and melancholy. Young made Trans because he found that when he used a vocoder to communicate with his son Ben, who was born with cerebral palsy, he was able to elicit a more vivid response. Back in the day, vocal manipulation required skill. To use a talk box, you had to be able to play the notes you wanted your voice to make on keyboards or guitar. Afrika Bambaataa apparently read National Security Agency documents on ‘Secret Digital Voice Communications in World War II’ when getting to grips with the vocoder. Now all you need to do is download a program and watch a tutorial on YouTube if you want to use Auto-Tune. There’s even an iPhone app that lets you Auto-Tune your voice. The alluring quality that electronic vocal effects once had has long gone. Today we’re left with a bunch of idiots who wouldn’t be able to hit a note if it boxed them on the nose and who distort their voices to such comedic levels that they end up sounding like retarded cartoon characters.
08 /22 YOUR LATEST ALBUM KARMAGEDDON BROUGHT TOGETHER 30 ARTISTS. IS THERE A MESSAGE BEHIND IT?
Of course. It’s triggering an awareness through entertaining. Karma is what goes around comes around. Looking at the world these days there’s so much bad karma happening. This is karma meets Armageddon, so it’s kind of a wake up call that tackles various issues – social, economic, political, cultural.
YOU WORKED ON THE ALBUM FOR THREE YEARS. HOW DID YOU APPROACH SUCH A MEGA COLLABORATION? The album has artists from around the world. Most of them are Middle Eastern or Arabs, or Arab Westerners. They’re people I’ve met during my music career; at concerts, at festivals, at forums. I sent them some stuff about the topics, then I sent them some beats and we went from there. I recorded about 30 tracks and I chose 17. It’s a very diverse album. It’s not underground, it’s not commercial, it’s not soulful. I sampled a lot of tracks and some of the tracks have Arabic songs from the ‘70s. Hip hop is about bringing a new form to empower a message.
IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU TO MAINTAIN THAT ARAB FEEL?
DJ LETHAL SKILLZ SMOKING NARGUILEH IN A HAMRA CAFÉ, DJ LETHAL SKILLZ IS INSTANTLY RECOGNISABLE. THE DJ, PRODUCER AND RENOWNED TURNTABLIST IS A WELL-KNOWN AMBASSADOR OF ARABIC HIP HOP, THE FOUNDER OF “HIP HOP FAMILY” 961 UNDERGROUND, AND RARELY GOES A WEEK WITHOUT A GIG. BORN IN ’76, HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIP HOP WHILE PRACTICING THE MOVES FROM CLASSIC ‘80S FILM “BREAKIN’” IN HIS FATHER’S VIDEO STORE. AFTER WATCHING HERBIE HANCOCK’S “ROCKET” ON TV HE STARTED DJING AT SCHOOL DISCOS (USING CASSETTE TAPES, HE’S THAT OLD SCHOOL) AND HAS NEVER LOOKED BACK. IT’S A SURPRISE TO FIND OUT THAT SKILLZ ONLY DEDICATED HIMSELF TO MUSIC FULL-TIME THREE YEARS AGO, GIVING UP A CORPORATE CAREER TO INVEST HIS SAVINGS IN MUSIC. HIS NEW ALBUM, “KARMAGEDDON”, IS A MAMMOTH MELTING POT OF HIP HOP ACTS FROM ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST, OR AS SKILLZ PUTS IT, “A WAKE UP CALL”
In hip hop we have a debate about “what is Arabic hip hop?” Is it an Arabic rapper rapping in Arabic over a beat? Is it a rapper rapping in English over any beat, but because he’s from the Arab world, it’s Arabic hip hop?
AND WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Hip hop is about passing a message. And there are so many ways to do that. They all complement each other. If a track doesn’t have Arabic music or Arabic rap that doesn’t mean it’s not Arab hip hop, as long as there’s something related to this region’s issues.
YOU’VE BEEN DJING FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS. BEFORE ARABIC HIP HOP EVEN GOT GOING… As Arab kids, we all grew up listening to American and French hip hop. During the war in Lebanon I used to travel to Africa and Cyprus and collect hip hop. And growing up I had a
dream that I’d love to have Arabic hip hop, in my language. The Arab revolutions – I’m not gonna call it Arab Spring – just accelerated the exposure and people finding out what hip hop is. People are empowered by what we’re doing.
TELL US ABOUT THE CHALLENGES YOU FACED WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF KARMAGEDDON. This is my second album, but it’s the first album you can actually go into Virgin Megastore and see it on the shelves. I’m going to give you some figures: 60% of my support online is from a Western crowd – album sales, comments, downloads – whether tangible or intangible. They have a lot more appreciation for what we do as Arab youth. The other 30% is from Arab Westerners, and 10% is from the whole region, including North Africa. Most support comes from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where the youth have nothing to do. Some of the best breakdancers come from the Gulf. They’re beasts on an international level. Hip hop gives them a tool to use their time positively.
WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ARTISTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
You need to be a performing artist. Just sitting in your bedroom or studio making music isn’t enough. Music is a very hard path to take. If it were easy you’d see a zillion artists popping out! You need financial stability on the side – don’t quit your university. Education is very important ‘cause when you talk to the media, you need to express yourself. As a musician you’re an ambassador for what you represent, and for what you stand for in your country and your region.
WHAT’S ON LETHAL SKILLZ’S CALENDAR FOR 2012?
I have a lot of live performances, a lot of tours. I’m working on a couple of mixtape projects. I’m working on another album to be released at the end of this year. Also I’m thinking of going back to the corporate world, as a consultant. But it doesn’t mean dropping music. Every dollar I save I put back into music.
THE BATTLE BETWEEN HIP HOP GOOD AND SOCIAL EVIL: DJ LETHAL SKILLZ LETS LOOSE ON HIS SECOND ALBUM KARMAGEDDON
09 /22
THE SUFI RUMINATIONS OF A LOCAL LYRICIST UNVEILING THE HIDDEN: A TREATISE ON AN UNCLASSIFIABLE ADDITION TO HIP-HOP CULTURE
WITH THE FEBRUARY RELEASE OF HIS DEBUT ALBUM “KACHF EL MAHJOUB” (UNVEILING THE HIDDEN) MAZEN EL SAYED AKA EL RASS HAS EMERGED AS A LYRICAL SOOTHSAYER FOR A NEW SCHOOL OF ARAB HIP-HOP. A RUPTURED LABEL IMPRINT, “KACHF EL MAHJOUB” IS COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY RUPTURED RECORDING ARTIST JAWAD NAWFAL AKA MUNMA WHO DEMONSTRATES AN UNCANNY SENSIBILITY FOR MATCHING ELABORATE MUSICAL LAYERS TO EL RASS’ PROVOCATIVE WORD PLAY. RED BULL INTERVIEWED EL RASS SHORTLY BEFORE HIS ALBUM RELEASE IN FEBRUARY
BY JACKSON ALLERS BEATSANDBREATH.COM
IS IT DIFFICULT TO TALK ABOUT REFERENCES FOR THIS ALBUM BECAUSE THERE ISN’T REALLY A PRECEDENT?
I’d say this was my/our intention. The album shouldn’t resemble anything else. Every track is a different universe, and every track has a different sound we’ve tried to reach. I also tried to use the fact that I can perform different voices to bring in a more theatrical element to my emceeing. On a track like “T5ayel” (Conceive), for example, there are two speakers – the first who uses more abstract imagery in which a turtle is stuck on a treadmill in a gym. It’s a way of saying – imagine a person who is structurally slow going at such a speed that the turtle becomes an absolute victim to the world around him.
THE ALBUM TITLE IMPLIES PEELING BACK LAYERS OF REALITY?
In order to aspire for a better future, we have to destroy barriers that push us away from reality – breaking these barriers breaks down the fear of the other.
WHILE THIS ALBUM DEFIES CONVENTIONAL CLASSIFICATION, IT HAS UNDENIABLE ELEMENTS THAT PLACE IT IN THE ARAB MUSICAL CONTEXT. My relationship with music has always been like this. I want to synthesize and absorb the cumulative experience of the culture I belong to on a musical and artistic level and be a continuation of this culture. Naturally my vision has some components that resemble a more classical oriental thing. But there are other components that belong to a more futuristic approach and are beyond cultural constraints.
10 /22 < SERGE YARED (FAR RIGHT) IN REHEARSALS WITH FADI TABBAL (MIDDLE) AND STEPHANE RIVES (FAR LEFT)
SERGE YARED: RESCUED FROM THE FIRE THE GIST OF “RESCUED FROM THE FIRE” IS SIMPLE ENOUGH. WHAT RECORD WOULD YOU SAVE FROM THE EMBERS OF YOUR BURNING HOUSE IF, GOD FORBID, THE FIRE DEPARTMENT EVER WENT ON STRIKE? SERGE YARED, LEAD SINGER OF PSYCHEDELIC FOLK-POP BAND THE INCOMPETENTS, SHARES WHICH ALBUM HE’D SINGE HIS FINGERS FOR
AMADEUS AWAD TIME OF THE EQUINOX Amadeus Awad This release falls under the “progressive rock” label, which makes describing it somewhat tedious. Generally it is rock music, with various genres intermingling into a homogenous BY OMAR EL FIL FEELNOTES.WORDPRESS.COM
product; genres such as heavy metal, classical, oriental, jazz, electronica, and even some Irish folk music. This is a piece of work that is more about grandiose compositions and epic guitar-prowess than catchy riffs and memorable hooks. Most of these tracks would appeal to just about any decent rock or metal fan, though I must confess that some of the displays of guitar virtuosity do drag on for too long from time to time. There are vocals by international guests, such as Marc Boals (US), most famous for touring with legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, and Liz Vandall (Sweden), of the band Sahara and collaborator of German guitarist Uli Jon Roth; both he and Malmsteen are widely recognised as pioneers of the neo-classical guitar style, which Awad himself touches upon. Though Time of the Equinox is not the heaviest or most experimental product of the Lebanese metal scene, for what it is, it delivers more than enough.
Well, there is always a nuance between the album you would rescue and the album you consider being the best album ever made. Sometimes these two coincide but most often they don’t. If I were to save ONE album, it implies it would be the only album left for me to listen to. It has therefore to be an album that is varied in its moods and genres. A monochrome album would not do it because I hope the rest of my life would not be monochrome. This being said I have reduced my pool of albums: The Beatles’ White Album? The Clash’s London Calling? Prince’s Sign o’ the Times? Bowie’s Hunky Dory? Today – because it is today I am impulsively saving a record, tomorrow is another day – I would pick The Kinks’ Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). It is certainly not what I consider being the best album ever made but it is very likely that it is one of the most enjoyable albums to listen to.
SLUTTERHOUSE ANOTHER LIE
Ringside Production I feel I am obligated to warn you: this is “club music”. Now, I’m not saying Another Lie is to be exclusively enjoyed with one hand clutching a drink and the other in the air, but there is an undeniable “thump” to it that inclines
It has a lot of irony and irony ages particularly well. It is an LP graced with the melodic genius and the acerbic lyrics of Ray Davies, who delivers among his best songs (the romping “King Kong” and “Plastic Man”, the elegiac “ShangriLa” and the über-cool “Drivin’”). The other advantage of Arthur… is its story – being one of the first and certainly best concept rock opera albums or whatever you want to call it. It is set in post-World War II Great Britain and it tells the story of Arthur Morgan, a carpet-layer whose family emigrates to Australia dreaming of a more auspicious life. Storytelling at its best and an album filled with a sentiment Davies masters particularly well: nostalgia. Having lost all my belongings in this goddam fire I guess I would not be very estranged from this feeling...
me to classify it as such. Even though there are some steady tracks that would be most ideal to wind down to at home after a long evening… in the club. But don’t be fooled by that context; the music itself does have some distinct merits. What you have here is “minimal electropop”: primitive synth sounds, 808-like drum sequences, ever so subtle autotune. There is some major “80s pop throwback” action going on, and some present-day influences as well. Frontman Rabih Salloum may sing of all-too-familiar themes, but there is certain poetry to his lyrics (I fit the crazy birds on my shoulder/ hoping that their wings will fly me away (“Carry On”)). I admit, I haven’t heard the band’s previous album Made in Dance, but based on its single, “Slutterhouse Blues”, I’m inclined to favour that rough electro-rock sound over this clean and drifty electro-pop.
11 /22
JEAN-MARIE RIACHI JMR STUDIOS
Jean-Marie Riachi has steadily built up his studio over the last two years, and it shows. Based in Rabieh, his drool-worthy collection of digital and analogue gear makes this perhaps the most well-equipped studio across the Middle East. Now open for business, Riachi produces major-league pop stars and music projects, but is waiting for Hollywood to come knocking.
WHAT’S YOUR SETUP?
This is the ultimate mixing room in the region and maybe even worldwide. It’s heavily equipped. A lot of young producers can now mix music on their laptop, so what we really need isn’t a production space but a mixing space to get a better sound for these young producers, or even professional artists.
YOU CERTAINLY HAVE A LOT OF GEAR…
WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS IF MUSIC COMES ALIVE ON STAGE, THE STUDIO IS WHERE IT REALLY FINDS ITS BODY AND SOUL. THREE PRODUCERS AND MUSICIANS BASED IN AND AROUND BEIRUT GIVE A GLIMPSE INTO THEIR MOST VALUABLE TOOLS
We have an amazing phonics system with five consoles, it’s 140 channel. It’s not a controller, it’s a real console – you can have physical input, dynamics and EQs. And we have an amazing convertor, the latest technology in monitoring, lots of vintage analogue gear and a collection of vintage and rare microphones. We can mix from electro dance to a symphony orchestra. I believe in combining the two technologies. For dance music it’s important to have the punch of the digital, but with a little warmness of the analogue.
WHERE DO YOU BUY FROM?
The rare ones are from eBay or studios selling their equipment. The new ones are all from the States. The acoustic design was done by a Belgian company and engineer called Far, the same people who design the monitor.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
We have a label called Oreole Records. We do projects for production: instrumental, ethnic, oriental, some latino jazz, electro. We work on an album with a story, an album with an identity. As a producer I have a lot of clients – Magida Al Roumi, Lara Scander. But lately they are doing singles rather than an album, because of the bad situation in the area.
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND IN THE STUDIO?
I don’t know, I live in the same building [laughs]. I studied music, I’m a musician. Through experience you learn a lot. The first time I went into the studio I was making the coffee. You spend a lot of time before you sit here.
WHAT’S MISSING?
Nothing [laughs]. I was in London last week so I called the engineer and asked him the same question. I can assure you we have no space for anything and we don’t need anything! I’m so happy, we are ready now.
DREAM PROJECT?
Movie soundtracks. I’m waiting for the day Lebanon or the region will start producing decent movies. This studio is equipped for surround, but we don’t have the production to do surround music.
12 /22
GHAZI ABDEL BAKI FORWARD MUSIC
Forward Music’s studio is on the move. In the process of transferring to a new location in music venue DRM in Hamra, producer Ghazi Abdel Baki hopes to enhance that love for live sounds that makes Forward’s releases so distinct and plans to release 10 to 15 albums in 2012.
WHEN DID FORWARD’S STUDIO OPEN?
The studio is the cornerstone of DRM and Forward Music at the same time. It started in 2001 when we built the studio. It developed into a music label, then into artist representation, and eventually into the live venue of DRM. That’s the evolution.
WHAT’S THE STUDIO’S TRADEMARK SOUND?
We specialise in live performance. And some overdubs. For instance, we record live takes of rhythm sections and bands all together. We like and we specialize in recording live drums. That’s what we became famous for, rather than electronic music. We have nothing against electronic music, we just don’t do it!
WHAT HAVE YOU RECORDED AT FORWARD?
We’ve recorded a lot of bands. We’ve done a lot of Arabic and world music recordings: four albums and a DVD for Charbel Rouhana, Soumaya Baalbaki’s Arabtango, Issa Ghandour, Ziyad Sahhab, Khaled el Huber and I recorded my albums there too. Also Fareeq el Atrash, a hip hop group, who we recorded in a live format with a sound that’s different from before.
WHAT GEAR DO YOU USE?
We use sonar software for mixing and the main console. A Yamaha O2R as the mixer. They are the two main pieces of equipment, the rest is outboard gear.
WHAT’S THE MOST EXPENSIVE KIT IN THE STUDIO?
Our ears. I’m serious. This is what we bank on when we work. The rest is superfluous, it doesn’t make any difference.
FAVOURITE PIECE OF KIT?
Microphones. Each microphone has a special function, you use it for special things. It’s nice to have the freedom and a variety of microphones at your disposal.
JAD ATOUI
sell them for $800 to $900. And my instruments are from Africa – Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire.
Producing from his bedroom in Mar Elias, Beirut, young talent Jad Atoui is a music producer, electronic sounds experimentalist and member of underground music collective Acousmatik system (www.acousmatiksystem.org). Known for his sensational live sets, he is working on an album to be released at the end of the year.
WHAT’S THE MOST EXPENSIVE?
HIS BEDROOM
HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD THE STUDIO?
That would be microphones, again! It is very important, this is what makes the studio, the mics. The rest is simple gear.
I started producing four years ago. When I started I was working on old speakers. Two years ago I bought some equipment and new speakers, and my laptop. I‘ve had my working station here for two years.
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND IN THE STUDIO?
WHAT’S YOUR SETUP?
WHAT’S MISSING?
On average each album takes about 100 to 150 hours of mixing. That’s without recording. The way we work the mixes is different to anywhere else. It’s not automated, we don’t use compressors, we do it manually – it’s like an artisan’s work.
I have two old school Technics speakers, an Akai APC40 controller, chaos pads, a sound card, samplers and my guitar so I can record sounds. Sometimes I use my iPad as a synthesizer. And I record some sounds from instruments and I use them as samplers.
TIPS FOR BUILDING YOUR OWN STUDIO?
WHAT MUSIC HAVE YOU PRODUCED HERE?
The more time you spend in the studio, the better you become. You have to spend countless and countless hours in the studio to begin to understand the gear. And to know your mix. That’s the only secret.
Ambient music, experimental music, IDM, glitch and dubstep/breakcore for raves.
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR GEAR?
This controller is from New York. My chaos pad and laptop are from New York, even my guitar is from New York [laughs]. My brother [musician Tarek Atoui] used to send me some stuff. These speakers are from Sabra [Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut]. They’re imported from Japan. They’re very good speakers and very old school. They sell them in Sabra but they don’t know their value – they’re $100 but you can
Actually, my laptop.
FAVOURITE PIECE OF KIT?
My controller. It allows me to do everything and I always use it in my live performances. I can’t perform without it.
WHAT’S MISSING?
I need synthesizers. And I want to buy old controllers from the ‘80s and ‘90s because they produce original and old sounds.
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND IN THE STUDIO?
It depends. For the past few weeks I’ve spent six or seven hours every day. Before a performance I spend more time. I wake up at 9am and start producing. I’m more inspired then.
TIPS FOR BUILDING YOUR OWN STUDIO?
Don’t spend a lot of money on equipment. Right now it’s not important what you have, it’s how you use the software and the techniques you use. You can buy a Gameboy, produce 8-bit sounds and do a track. Producers like David Guetta and all that bullshit have studios and equipment but they don’t produce something special. It’s how you put your feeling in your tracks.
13 /22 YOU FOUNDED NORIENT, AN ONLINE MAGAZINE AND “NETWORK FOR LOCAL AND GLOBAL SOUNDS AND MEDIA CULTURE”. WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
We’re actually trying to finance Norient, as it’s becoming bigger and bigger. We have a lot of people writing for us and wanting to write articles, but we still need money. So we’re trying to find a way to pay the authors, and to pay us. Norient today isn’t just a magazine – we organise a music film festival every year, in Bern, and do our own performances as well.
YOU’RE AN ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST. WHAT DOES THAT INVOLVE EXACTLY? It used to be that ethnomusicologists would go to Beirut and meet an oud player. They would record him, do an interview and learn how to play the oud. Then they would analyse what this oud player actually stands for in the context of Lebanon. These days it’s changed a lot. Now we work on urban music, experimental music, as well as popular music. While a traditional ethnomusicologist would learn to play oud, we actually learn how to use audio software. We try to be close to musical production and what these musicians are actually doing.
HOW FAMILIAR WERE YOU WITH BEIRUT BEFORE PUTTING TOGETHER THE COMPILATION?
GOLDEN BEIRUT HOW DO YOU CAPTURE THE MUSIC OF A CITY? THOMAS BURKHALTER IS AN ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST AND JOURNALIST FROM SWITZERLAND AND THE MAN BEHIND GOLDEN BEIRUT, A CHOICE SELECTION OF TRACKS FROM BEIRUT’S ALTERNATIVE SCENE. RELEASED LAST YEAR BY NORIENT PRODUCTIONS, HE EXPLAINS THE PROCESS.
Quite familiar. I’ve travelled to Beirut since 2000. I lived in Beirut between 2005 and 2006. I worked on a PhD on music in Lebanon. I wrote a lot of pages! I’m working now on making a book out of this PhD.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO CALL THE ALBUM GOLDEN BEIRUT? Two reasons. One, because of Beirut’s “golden ‘60s” and things like this. Then, on the other hand it’s really a cliché, it’s a stereotype. When you talk to musicians today, you feel that these guys try to create a sort of golden Beirut; a Beirut where you can play alternative music, where you have a normal life. How they define golden is up to them.
HOW DID YOU SELECT THE TRACKS?
It’s basically our taste. Me and my friend Jay Rutledge, who owns the Outhere record label, collected a lot of tracks and picked the tracks we liked. Very selfish, in a way! We discussed it with the musicians – we wouldn’t take a track when they said no. With Soapkills for example, I wanted another track but Yasmine Hamdan [singer of Soapkills] said no, so we used another instead.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?
I was playing saxophone at a jazz school in Switzerland and I was a bit fed up of playing scales every day, up and down. I heard you could study ethnomusicology in Switzerland. To earn money I started writing as a journalist. First about jazz, then about music outside of Europe – Indian music, experimental music and popular music from different places.
WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE LEBANESE ARTISTS? I like Raed Yassin. I think he’s very clever and precise in what he does. I also like Mazen Kerbaj, who’s not on the compilation. On this CD I love all the tracks. I’m curious about what Mashrou’ Leila will do in the future. I think the guys found quite a special sound.
MOST MEMORABLE MUSIC MOMENT IN BEIRUT?
A few years ago, The New Government and Scrambled Eggs organised a concert in a small red light bar in Hamra. It was quite a nice spot actually.
WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT THE CITY?
The narguileh at the Corniche, where the musicians never follow me because they think it’s just an oriental thing to do, friends, obviously, the food, the sea and the colours of the houses.
14 /22
rollingstoneme.com), the cousin of the US-based music and culture mag that features regional-specific stories and announcements about all manner of Arab musical goings-on including interviews, event reviews and artist profiles.
STREAM IT A SOURCE GUIDE TO THE
INDEPENDENT ARAB MUSIC SCENE JACKSON ALLERS IS A CULTURAL REPORTER, WRITER (BEATSANDBREATH.COM) AND MANAGING EDITOR OF WORLD HIP HOP MARKET – A LONGSTANDING (EST. 2004) GLOBAL HIP HOP CULTURE WEB NEWS PORTAL (WORDHIPHOPMARKET.COM). HAVING SPENT NEARLY SIX YEARS DOCUMENTING THE INDEPENDENT MUSIC SCENE IN THE REGION FOR MAGAZINES LIKE ROLLING STONE, HE PROVIDES THIS SHORT GUIDE TO A SELECTION OF INDEPENDENT ONLINE SOURCES DEVOTED TO PROMOTING ALTERNATIVE MUSIC IN THE REGION
lebaneseunderground.com, www. forwardmusicgroup.com and eka3.org are three sites associated with a promotion and management org (Lebunderground) and two of the only independent record labels operating in the Middle East. Between these organisations it’s possible to find information about most of the region’s top purveyors of independent music. Each site carries press clippings of their artist rosters and each publishes regular touring schedules for over 30 musicians and producers that range in genre from electronic and experimental to hip hop, folk, alt rock, post-punk and modern interpretations of traditional Arab musical forms. Where electronic and experimental musical forms are concerned, Ruptured (rupturedonline.com) is the source of record. The site features the production output of the Ruptured label – with much of the online content generated during founder Ziad Nawfal’s weekly The Ruptured Sessions radio series, airing on Radio Liban in Beirut. Thought-provoking audio/video records and beautiful photography (courtesy of Lebanese photographer Tanya Traboulsi) accompany informative text entries about a wide range of regional and international artists appearing on Nawfal’s show. For more mainstream coverage of regional music developments turn to Rolling Stone Magazine Middle East (www.
Where Arab hip hop is concerned, the sites Revolutionary Arabic Rap (revolutionaryarabrap.blogspot.com), Josh Asen’s Hip Hop Diplomacy (hiphopdiplomacy.org), and the two sites that I administer – Beats and Breath (beatsandbreath.com) and the global hip-hop culture site World Hip Hop Market (wordhiphopmarket.com) – present a very wide range of Arab hip hop oriented subject matter.
HONORABLE SITE MENTIONS
Lebanese musician and music critic Omar al Fils’ Feel Notes (feelnotes. wordpress.com) Amman-based production company Immortal Entertainment (immortalent. wordpress.com) triplew.me is a UAE-based web portal and web promotions engine for the ME’s emerging musicians, photographers, artists and filmmakers soundcloud.com for specific artist names, mix sessions and original tracks from most of the alternative and independent music makers nomadicwax.com is the intrepid socially conscious global urban film and production company that also puts out noteworthy products like the acclaimed Diaspora Mixtapes that have included Arab rappers on the first two volumes and the upcoming third volume Beirut Groove Collective’s blog (thebgc. posterous.com) is where the premiere soul DJ collective announce their gigs and ruminations of the participant members and their artistic collaborators
15 /22
PROFILES: LECTURERS RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT’S GUEST LECTURERS HAVE PACKED UP THEIR COLLECTIVE YEARS OF MUSICAL KNOW-HOW AND ARE READY TO SPILL THE BEANS
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16 /22
01. DJ ZINC
02. DJ YOUNG GURU
03. IBRAHIM MAALOUF
04. FADI TABBAL
Ben Zinc is able to clear whole BPMs in a single leap. Blending the roots of jungle, ragga, 2 step, and UK funky seamlessly for close to two decades, boom tunes like “Super Sharp Shooter”, “138 Trek”, or more recently, “Wile Out” with Ms Dynamite, stand as sure-fire anthems in the breakbeat arena. These days you can catch Zinc in the studio with Katy B, a rising London vocalist he’s help discover and propel to respectable chart success, both as a producer and fatherly mentor alongside the Rinse lot. He’s also an in-demand remixer for the likes of La Roux, Skream and Skepta, and continues to act as an ambassador for what he calls “crack house”, with his Bingo Beats label, worldwide DJ sets, and regular mixes on Rinse FM.
Artists need their people. Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton is Jay-Z’s people. When the rap-conquering emcee and world-conquering mogul steps into the booth (as he continues to do, despite frequent retirement threats), Young Guru is outside, at the board, making sure Hova sounds good. Since 1999 — a staggering twelve years — this has been how it’s done. Along the way, Guru has recorded pretty much every other A-list rapper. Some say he has the Midas touch.
Fondly flitting between countries and genres with sophisticated ease, Ibrahim Maalouf is an established trumpeter with a repertoire that traverses the sonic spectrum. Born in Beirut and raised in Paris, his father, trumpeter Nassim Maalouf, famously added an extra valve to the instrument to allow him to play the quarter-tones necessary for Arabic makams (modes). All too often categorised as pure “jazz”, Maalouf ’s albums Diasporas (2007) and Diachronism (2009) showcased instead a seductive collage of contemporary and classical influences; trip hop beats meet unmistakable Arabic rhythms, with an electro undercurrent and samples from Arabic radio and the Paris Metro. Maalouf ’s diversity has led him to play alongside the likes of Marcel Khalifé, Matthieu Chedid, Amadou & Mariam and Sting.
Fadi Tabbal is a man with his fingers in numerous musical pies. A sound design and sound conception specialist, his work as an engineer at Tunefork recording studios has secured its reputation as one of the most prominent studios in Beirut. Most of Beirut’s alternative acts have passed through Tunefork’s doors, and as well as producing local artists, Tabbal’s sound installations (The Feel Collective) and film soundtracks display his constant innovation. Tabbal’s diary is clearly full – outside the studio he’s a full-time member of several bands: psychedelic folk-rock band The Incompetents, experimental rock quartet XEFM and drone unit Under The Carpet, not to mention frequent collaborations with folk singer Youmna Saba and experimental punk band Scrambled Eggs. A teacher at ALBA University, he also co-produces the live sessions on Ziad Nawfal’s Ruptures radio program.
WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR RBMA BASS CAMP?
WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR RBMA BASS CAMP?
LONDON
WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR RBMA BASS CAMP?
To bring a little piece of the RBMA vibe to Beirut – to share knowledge and be with likeminded people, the way the academy does like nowhere else.
PROUDEST MUSICAL MOMENT:
I don’t know really. Maybe getting my music into the UK charts, or playing somewhere crazy like the main stage at Exit Festival!
TRACK OF THE MOMENT: Probably a new one I’ve made with P-Money. I’ve been opening my DJ sets with it and it’s going down well!
NEW YORK
WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR RBMA BASS CAMP?
I’d like to first introduce myself to the participants of the camp. This will be my first time in the Middle East, so I’d like to get them familiar with my past and current work, where I grew up and what influenced my path to become an engineer. Most of all, I’d like to encourage them to follow their passion and to create from the place that is not defined by “where you are from” or “what religion you practice”… but defined by how hard you work to see your passion through!
PROUDEST MUSICAL MOMENT:
This is always hard but I’d have to say it was when I heard my really good friend Tracey Lee’s “Party Time” track on the radio for the first time. I knew how hard he worked for that moment. I saw the blood, sweat and tears and it really inspired me to stay on my path.
ARTIST OF THE MOMENT: Kendrick Lamar.
PARIS
Meeting great people, discovering new sounds and bringing my own sound to people’s ears.
PROUDEST MUSICAL MOMENT:
Playing with Lhasa de Sela in Montreal. She was the greatest voice I’ve ever heard live.
TRACK OF THE MOMENT:
Lana Del Rey “You Can Be The Boss”.
BEIRUT
I will talk about my experience in the music/sound scene, and hope it will give the participants an idea of the difficulties and rewards they might encounter along the way.
PROUDEST MUSICAL MOMENT:
It’s hard to pinpoint one moment but I think it’s the recording of “Bullets Gently Flying Over My Hand” by my band The Incompetents. I think it was the first time I achieved the ‘60s pop sound that I love so much.
TRACK OF THE MOMENT:
If I have to choose something recent it would be “Concrete Gold” by WU LYF. For an older track, I’d say “Spinning Away” by Brian Eno and John Cale.
17 /22
PROFILES: PARTICIPANTS THERE ARE NO WINNERS OR LOSERS, SIMPLY A GROUP OF LIKE-MINDED PRODUCERS, INSTRUMENTALISTS, MCS, SINGERS, DJS, ENGINEERS, SOULFUL SONGWRITERS AND ALL-ROUND MUSICAL MAESTROS
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1. ANTHONY KHOURY FROM ADONIS Country: Lebanon Genre: Arabic pop/folk Tool: Voice, keys About: Born in 1987, Anthony Khoury graduated with a degree in architecture from AUB in 2010, and has since been practicing as part of blankpage architect. Founder, lyricist and composer of Lebanese pop/folk band Adonis, who have, since its establishment in 2011, released an album, two videos and participated in major events and concerts across Lebanon. adonisband.com 2. ALAA WARDI Country: KSA Genre: Arabic, folk, rock and a cappella Tool: Guitar, keyboard and vocals About: I’m an Iranian living in Saudi Arabia. I’m a YouTuber… check out my channel: youtube.com/user/ AlaaWardi. alaawardi.com 3. AVO DEMIRDJIAN FROM EPISODE Country: Lebanon Genre: Progressive symphonic melodic Tool: Electric violin About: Avo Demirdjian has played violin for the past 20 years and electric violin since he was 15. He joined Arcane in 2004 and formed epiSode in 2009. EpiSode have opened for Serj Tankian and are currently recording their first album. episode-band.com 4. AZIZA Country: Lebanon Genre: Oriental Tool: Vocals About: I have been singing around Beirut for the past two years, participating in festivals and events, and have had shows in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Turkey. Currently I sing in Ahwet Layla in Gemmayzeh, Beirut, every Tuesday, with a repertoire of classic oriental, Lebanese and Egyptian Tarab. An album is in the making – a work of electronic oriental fusion. Facebook – Aziza
5. BABAK SAFARNEJAD Country: Iran Genre: Blues, country, jazz, rock Tool: Harmonica, piano, qanoon About: Babak Safarnezhad was born in Tehran in 1985. From an artistic family, his eyes were opened to the world of music at 9 years old. He entered the conservatory music school and studied qanoon. Toots Thielemans gave him the inspiration to take up harmonica and he has since developed his own gypsy jazz style and an album, titled Friends. Facebook – Babak Safarnezhad, harmonicaclub.ir 6. BASHAR FARRAN Country: Lebanon Genre: World music Tool: Bass guitar About: I love everything new and catchy 7. BELIME Country: Lebanon Genre: Pop/Electronic Tool: Vocals About: Born Charbel Ghanimé, Belime is a Lebanon-born singersongwriter, pop musician and music producer. He released his debut album Trap in September 2010, spawning the commercially successful song “This is Reality” and later the single “Dice”. He’s also a wellknown composer for Arabic singers. Facebook – BelimeMusic 8. CEASAR K Country: Lebanon Genre: Breakbeat Tool: The turntable About: Ceasar K is a DJ, producer, turntablist and record collector from Beirut City. The pioneer of the breakbeat genre in both Lebanon and the Middle East since the late ‘90s, Ceasar is today an in-demand remixer and producer with numerous releases on reputable record labels worldwide as well as on his own, Vibe Lebanon Records. ceasarkonline.com
9. DAMIAN D’COSTA Country: Bahrain Genre: House Tool: DJ/Producer About: Born and bred in the Middle East, Damian D’Costa started out as a turntablist in the ‘80s. As a DJ, Damian has held residencies at famous clubs such as BJs, Likwid and Savage Garden. He has also hosted his own fiveday a week radio show on the national radio station 96.5FM for four years, bringing international club culture to the shores of the Arabian Gulf. Facebook – Djdamianandcosta 10. DAN SIN Country: Lebanon Genre: Eclectic (world/electro) Tool: Vocals and percussion About: A graduate in acting, Dan Sin specialised in mime in Barcelona in 2010 and played double bass for four years at the conservatoire. Self-taught on percussion, he created the band JAM.B, fusing storytelling, poetry and butoh dance. He is now working on Dan Sin solo and a dance show for BIPOD festival. alibi.cat 11. DANY BALADI Country: Lebanon Genre: Arabic/electronic Tool: Voice About: I started to sing Arabic oriental vocals five years ago when I met Zeid Hamdan, who had the idea of renewing old oriental music by mixing it with his new awesome music. When Zeid and I met, he was searching for someone who can sing old Arabic vocals, and we started to work on covers of Wadih El Safi, Asmahan and others. 12. DJ LETHAL SKILLZ Country: Lebanon Genre: Hip hop and urban music Tool: Turntables and MPC About: An Arab of Lebanese origin, DJ Lethal Skillz is one of the few DJs that can set a club on fire just by placing him behind the decks, and is also a wellknown producer and a music tutor. His ambitions do not stop at playing a club
or event, but have exceeded to producing music and videos all over the world. reverbnation.com/djlethalskillz 13. DJ SOTUSURA Country: Jordan Genre: Hip hop, downtempo Tool: Turntables About: I’m a 31year old DJ based in Amman, Jordan since 2004. I hold an underground hip hop radio show on Beat FM 102.5 as well as performing around the area on my own as a DJ or backing up my favourite MCs in the region. I’ve opened and DJed with the biggest names of our local hip hop scene, from Ramallah Underground to DAM, Edd Deeb, Amin, The Narcicyst and more. 14. HADI OUEINI Country: Lebanon Genre: Indie, pop rock, dance rock Tool: Drums About: A professional drummer and percussionist since 2009, Hadi Oueini began drumming in 2001 and began composing music in 2010. His style of playing ranges from classic rock, metal, reggae, rock pop and indie. He’s also provided technical support for drummers, in more than one hundred events. YouTube – Lazzy Lung Sex and Pirates 15. HARRY HEDESHIAN Country: Lebanon Genre: All Tool: Keyboards About: Studied music at the conservatory, Harry Hedeshian is inspired by classic rock artists and classic music. 16. HAMDAN AL-ABRI Country: UAE Genre: Soul and experimental Tool: Voice About: Dubai born singer-songwriter Hamdan Al-Abri began vocalizing at a young age. He’s performed alongside SADE, Erykah Badu, Ziggy Marley, Arrested Development, and Kanye West, and has released a self-titled solo debut EP. hamdan.bandcamp.com
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20 /22 17. BIG H. FROM JEDDAH LEGENDS Country: KSA Genre: Hip hop About: Owner of the first hip hop record label in Saudi Arabia, I’ve managed artists and producers. The first two Saudi hip hop albums released in the Middle East were by my company and under my supervision. Watch some of the video clips on YouTube (youtube.com/jeddahlegends). jeddahlegends.com 18. HIBA MANSOURI Country: Lebanon Genre: Electro oriental dub Tool: Vocal About: I started working with Zeid Hamdan in 2006. My music is electro oriental dub – it’s a new generation of Arab music, inspired by songs from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. hibalive.com 19. IMAD JAWAD FROM LAZZY LUNG Country: Lebanon Genre: Indie and alternative rock Tool: Bass guitar About: My life has always revolved around two things: architecture and music. In 2010 we recorded and released Lazzy Lung’s debut album Strange Places. In 2011 Lazzy Lung won the Rolling Stone Middle Eastern Battle of the Bands in Dubai. We also won The Triplew “home grown to hollywood” regional competition and were awarded “Musician of the Year” by Esquire Magazine. lazzylung.com 20. JAD MROUÉ AKA DJAD Country: Lebanon Genre: Electronic, pop, hip hop, experimental Tool: Software only (FL Studio, Audacity...) About: DJad is no musician: you can be sure that he’s never taken a real music lessons. The only instrument he used to play was the flute... in elementary school. As his love for music started to grow, he needed to do his own music. Since then it has become a way for him to communicate feelings and ideas with the world. lebaneseunderground.com/music 21. KARIM CHAMS EDDINE FROM BEIRUT SCUM SOCIETY Country: Lebanon Genre: Blues, rock ‘n’ roll, punk, postpunk Tool: Guitar and synth About: A self taught music student, Karim Chams Eddine has played with a wide range of musicians and tampered with different styles, from metal and punk to oriental and classical. Facebook – Beirut Scum Society 22. K-LIGHT Country: Saudi Arabia Genre: Rock, hip hop, dubstep, house Tool: Electric guitar, bass, drums About: K-Light has produced, recorded, mixed and mastered: Saudi United Bands by various artists; 1000,000 by BLAK-R (Blak Royalty); Revelation by Disturb The Balance, Scor Mix & Ziggy; Music Madness by Hassan Ghazzawi; The Inavoidable Change by Qusai aka Done Legend. facebook.com/RedSandProduction
23. KAY NASSEF Country: Egypt Genre: Electronic Tool: Singer About: My music career started just four years ago. I started by singing, and after my first release I won a Billboard Award. This motivated me, so I decided to move to Miami to learn electronic music production. I entered ATB’s international remix competition and won second place. I then decided to resign from my advertising career and focus only on my music! Facebook – Kay Nassef 24. KHODOR ELLAIK FROM BEIRUT SCUM SOCIETY Country: Lebanon Genre: Punk rock ‘n’ roll Tool: Vocals and harmonica About: Graphic design graduate and painter. beirut.scum.society.myspace.com 25. MALIKAH Country: Lebanon Genre: Hip hop Tool: Rapper About: Malikah (Queen in Arabic) was born in Marseille and raised in Beirut under the shadow of war. Malikah started rapping at the age of 16 and has established herself as the true “Queen of Arab Hip Hop”, stunning audiences around the world with her hard-hitting Arabic-language rhymestyle and representing Arabia. malikah961.com 26. MARC-ERNEST DIAB Country: Lebanon Genre: Classical, jazz Tool: Piano, bassoon About: I have been in the music field ever since I was a child. Basically, I practiced the piano for many hours in the conservatory and took private lessons, and then switched to bassoon, an instrument that has changed my perception of music. I released my debut album “Duende” in 2007 and have performed in different venues in Beirut. myspace.com/marcernest 27. MOHAMED AND OMAR KABBANI FROM ASHEKMAN Country: Lebanon Genre: Lebanese rap Tool: Rappers/lyricists About: Ashekman is an Arabic street art crew. Started in 2001 in Beirut by identical twin brothers Mohamed and Omar Kabbani, their work consists of Lebanese rap music, Arabic graffiti and an urban clothing line. Discography: “Nasher Ghassil” Ashekman’s debut album in 2007; “ASHEKMANphobia” in 2011. soundcloud.com/ashekman 28. MAY ALQASIM Country: Bahrain Genre: R&B Tool: Voice and piano About: I am a young aspiring artist striving to place Bahrain on the musical map, showing people that talent exists on this tiny island. I have performed around the globe as well as been a part of many music projects, mixtapes and albums. I plan to break ideologies of where good music comes
from. My pen is my life, and my voice is my heart. Let me sing! mayalqasim.com, Facebook – Mayalqasimofficial, YouTube – Mayalqasim, Twitter – Maya Alqasim 29. MC AMIN Country: Egypt Genre: Hip hop Tool: Rap About: I was born and raised in the city of Mansoura. Ever since I started listening to music, rap has been the one genre that attracted me the most. This type of music is not only based on a good melody or beats – it’s mainly good and meaningful lyrics, which convey true feelings to its listeners. myspace.com/mcaminmusic 30. NICOLA HAKIM FROM ADONIS Country: Lebanon Genre: Pop, folk Tool: Drums About: I was born and raised in an artistic family. I am straightforward in my talk, actions, thinking and feelings. I started drum lessons at the age of eight. I love to collaborate in unusual projects with professionals from other artistic disciplines. I’m a part-time drum instructor as well as managing partner at entertainment company Blazin’ Beat. adonisband.com 31. NOUR NIMRI Country: Lebanon Genre: Acoustic alternative/rock Tool: Vocals and drums About: Born March 23rd 1981, I’m a self taught musician and plays drums, guitar, piano and vocals. I started composing and recording original music at home, mainly acoustic pop rock, alternative and some classical pieces. Facebook – Nournimri 32. OMAR ZEINEDIN Country: Lebanon Genre: Arabic hip hop Tool: Lyricist, mic About: ZeineDin is an inspiring Lebanese hip hop artist. His journey in hip hop started at an early age. He uses his music to relate to his listeners and to find new ways to deliver this new genre. His first album “Min Beirut” was released in April 2011 and is available online and in Lebanese record stores. Facebook – Zeinedinlebanon or zeinedin.com 33. OUSSO FROM NAGHAM MASRY/EFTEKASAT Country: Egypt Genre: Fusion Tool: Guitar About: Founder of band Nagham Masry, member of Eftekasat jazz band and founder of SoS Music festival (20062010), Ousso has composed music for films and commercials, recorded and performed for Mohamed Mounir, Amr Diab and most major Arab pop singers. He’s also professor of guitar and music technology at AUC. YouTube – NaghamMasry 34. RAKAN S. FROM THERAKANS Country: Lebanon Genre: Pop and EDM Tool: Pop About: We’re two ambitious artists
who love music. We write our own stuff and compose our own songs. We do all the work and we work hard to get the results we need. We are not afraid of giving our best to the world, and we’re always trying to better ourselves with time. (PS. Rakan is the lead vocalist.) therakans.com 35. RAGHEED FROM BIGFLOW PRODUCTIONS Country: Lebanon Genre: Hip hop Tool: Keyboard, flstudio About: A hip hop producer who found his way of expressing his feelings through beats! War, injustice, lack of freedom and revolution were his main motivation. soundcloud.com/bigflow-1 36. DJ ROGER CHOUEIRY Country: Qatar Genre: A bit of everything Tool: DJ About: A turntable fanatic and electro music monk, Roger is always expanding the parameters of his musical perception, shocking the crowd every time with rockish, adrenalized and never-mixed-that-way anthems. facebook.com/rogerchoueiry 37. SAEED SALEME Country: Lebanon Genre: Revolutionary Tool: Rap About: I started to rap about life in 2004. With time and knowledge that changed to Revolutionary Rap, which is what I’m doing now. I’ve recorded several tracks with the help of Big Flow Productions (a talented local producer) in beats, recording and mastering, and I’ve done many live performances. reverbnation.com/saeedsalameh 38. SANDRA ARSLANIAN FROM SANDMOON Country: Lebanon Genre: Indie-folk Tool: Vocals/piano About: After having played in a couple of rock/rock-electro bands in Belgium, Sandra Arslanian (piano/vocals) decided in 2009 to concentrate her efforts on indie-folk band Sandmoon. She is later joined by Sandmoonians Tony Abou Haidar (drums), Elia Monsef (guitar) and Nicholas Credli (bass). Facebook – Sandmoon 39. TAREQ ABU KWAIK FROM EL FAR3I Country: Jordan Genre: Indie, Arab hip hop Tool: Songwriter, MC and guitar. Main instrument is drums. About: A drummer/percussionist and lyricist, I grew up most of my life in the lovely city of Amman, Jordan with frequent visits to Jenin, Palestine, my mother’s hometown. Something makes me think that expression by music is part of a constant strive to understanding our people, always and everywhere. Facebook – A5ook.El.Far3i, YouTube – far3i
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DRM DRM provides the home for this year’s RBMA Bass Camp Beirut. The state-of-the-art venue is an apt location: muscians, lecturers and art direction by Mazen Kerbaj take over for three back-to-back days of dynamic music making.
RBMA BASS CAMP BEIRUT VENUES RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY INVADES BEIRUT’S SOUNDEST VENUES FOR SOME SERIOUS SONIC STYLE
The DRM concept revolves around a relaxed atmosphere, high caliber concerts, excellent productions, stupendous service and a fantastic dining and wining experience. Over eight months, DRM has so far produced 120 concerts, including international artists such as Stanley Jordan (US), Souad Massi (FR), The Herbaliser (UK), Henry Texier (FR), Chiri (AUS), Tony Allen (NIG) and Ghalia Benali (BE). The venue is the next step for music label Forward Music, who were keen to create a concert hall where people can come and enjoy high quality concerts in a laid back atmosphere. Paying extra attention to the venue’s acoustics for crystal clear sound, DRM is a true concert hall, conceived from the perspective of music producers and musicians. 24.03.2012 09:00PM Ibrahim Maalouf in a live jam session with over 40 musicians from across the Middle East
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BODØ
DANY’S
MOJO
PASTEUR
Bodø opened its doors in August 2011 and is proud to be the only 24/7 in Beirut (if not in Lebanon). The name has Norwegian roots: Bodø is a city in the north of Norway that, thanks to its unique global position, spends six months of the year in 24/7 daylight, and the other six months of the year in 24/7 darkness.
A cool café/bar/lounge, Dany’s is a dinky venue with a big atmosphere. It boasts being the first bar to open up on 78th Street in Hamra, which has since become a top destination for local party goers, scenesters and tourists.
Mojo Club was established to promote live jazz and blues in Lebanon. Taking its name from a magical charm bag used in hoodoo – the magic “mojo” that inspired so many early blues artists – Mojo Club is an extension of the Musikuest booking agency that has brought hundreds of jazz and blues artists from the States to Lebanon since 2000. The renowned musicians include Chick Corea, Mike Stern, Sonny Fortune, John Hicks, Lucky Peterson, Shirley Johnson, Chris Duarte and many, many more, all making Mojo the next best thing to the famous New York City and Chicago jazz and blues clubs, right in the heart of Hamra.
Named after its namesake street, Pasteur has transformed an old Lebanese house in the heart of Gemmayzeh into a full-fledged club and events space. Pasteur is a feel-good and flexible party spot, attracting different crowds whether hosting established DJs, underground party organizers, acoustic performances, open-mic nights, art and photography exhibitions or private parties.
Since opening, Bodø has hosted various local bands and international artists who keep the party going until the early hours. The venue’s location and opening hours have made it a destination for artists, journalists and grass root movement members. Every other Monday Bodø is taken over by an open mic formula that gives a platform to NGOS and helps movements gather support for their projects – the event often ends in a jam session too. 23.03.2012 09:00PM A gathering of likeminded musicians from across the region share the stage for a night of unlimited possibilities
The joy of Dany’s is its consistency: there’s live local DJs every night of the week, fresh fruit cocktails ready and waiting behind the bar, and friendly stress-free service. Sit inside to fully enjoy the music or take a seat on the terrace for a memorable night guaranteed. On the second floor of Dany’s you can find Live, where you can catch local bands gigging, or an underground after-hours dance night on Fridays. 23.03.2012 09:00PM A mix of sounds and cultures in a unique live performance featuring musicians from across the Middle East
23.03.2012 09:00PM A live fusion of sounds, borders and languages from a remarkable collection of Middle Eastern musicians
The 200-person capacity venue is split into two spaces; there’s a bar, video projectors, dance floor and DJ booth, surrounded by benches and low stools that confirm that lounge-like feel. Open from Wednesday to Saturday, the weekends get lively. Still a relatively new addition to Beirut’s address book, Pasteur’s unique vibe has so far attracted a lot of DJs, and party organisers like We Run Beirut, the BCE and the Underrated Crew. 23.03.2012 10:00PM DJ Zinc takes over for a night of bass, breaks and everything in-between. Warm up set courtesy of Ceasar K. and opening act from Rakan Suleiman
23.03.2012 10:00PM
24.03.2012 09:00PM
DJ ZINC TAKES OVER FOR A NIGHT OF BASS, IBRAHIM MAALOUF IN A LIVE JAM SESSION BREAKS AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN. WITH OVER 40 MUSICIANS FROM ACROSS WARM UP SET FROM CEASAR K. AND THE MIDDLE EAST. OPENING ACT RAKAN SULEIMAN.
23.03.2012 09:00PM
A LIVE FUSION OF SOUNDS, BORDERS AND LANGUAGES FROM A REMARKABLE COLLECTION OF MIDDLE EASTERN MUSICIANS.
23.03.2012 09:00PM
A GATHERING OF LIKEMINDED MUSICIANS FROM ACROSS THE REGION SHARING THE STAGE FOR A NIGHT OF UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES.
23.03.2012 09:00PM
A MIX OF SOUNDS AND CULTURES IN A UNIQUE LIVE PERFORMANCE FEATURING MUSICIANS FROM ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST.