Search - Sam Shalabi :: Eid

"A potent musical response to rampant Arabophobia in the West, but also ... a very personal, ambivalent and honest description of turbulent times ... It's a genuinely disturbing record, precisely because it refuses to be situated in one category or another, whether crudely anti-or pro-war, experimental, or pop." -- The Wire "One has to marvel at the consistently high level of [Sam Shalabi's] prolific output." -- Pitchfork Sam Shalabi's third solo outing for Alien8 was written and conceived in Cairo, Egypt in 2006 and further realized in Montreal and Vancouver during the first half of 2007. The album is the result of two separate ideas that slowly coalesced over a couple of years. The first was Shalabi's notion of composing songs for singers he knew and enjoyed, and the second was that of creating a "modern Arabic pop record." While Shalabi was living in Cairo, he came to the realization that Arabic pop music was much more wild, wide, and weird than he had imagined, and the discovery had a huge influence on this recording. Upon listening to Eid it becomes clear how the breadth of Arabic pop music influenced Shalabi: each piece is stylistically allowed to take its own shape. The recording opens with a beautifully played piece of Shalabi's solo oud playing, which gives the listener the impression that he is in store for a gentle acoustic journey. Gears shift drastically with the follow-up track "Jessica Simpson," one of the recording's most unusual selections. Guest vocalist Radwon Moumneh does an excellent job delivering his vocals over repetitious percussion, and then a totally unexpected Guitar Hero-style solo slips in out of nowhere. Sam Shalabi enlists the help of far too many guests to list here, although one standout contribution is that of singer/songwriter Lhasa de Sela, who has a thriving solo career and has collaborated with the likes of the Tindersticks and Nick Cave. Constellation Records recording artist Elizabeth Anka Vajajick sings on "Billy the Kid," and Katie Moore is absolutely stunning on "Billy the Kid (part II)".