Habibi Funk is dedicated to re-releasing a style of music that historically never existed as a musical genre. We use the term to describe a certain sound that we like from the countries of the Arab world. The songs we chose were created in places quite far from another and under very different circumstances. Some were written and recorded during war times, others in exile. Despite the differences we think there is a musical connection between them. Essentially, we are interested in the musical endeavours, in which artists from the Arab world mixed local and regional influences with musical interests that came from outside of the region. Even though the name suggests it’s all about funk music, our focus is more than just that. Often these influences might be inspired from Western popular music such as soul, pop and rock but it’s not limited to that either. Some of our favourite records are best described as Arabic zouk (a genre originating from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe) like Mallek Mohamed’s music, Algerian coladera (a popular musical style from the Cape Verdean islands) or Lebanese AOR, which means the process of musical influences displayed on this compilation was much more versatile than just taking Western music as a blueprint and translating it with a local accent. The compilation features 15 different artists. Some you might already know through Habibi Funk’s releases like Fadoul, Ahmed Malek, Dalton or Al Massrieen, while others are meant as an introduction to artists like Kamal Keila, Sharhabeel Ahmed, Attarazat Addahabia & Mallek Mohamed.
In todays world there are still many stereotypical conceptions to be found when it comes to the Arab world. Contrary to what a lot of Western narratives and media suggest, the Arab world we got to know through extensive traveling in several countries of North Africa and the Middle East, is a very versatile terrain. A place full of different stories, ideas and beliefs. And we hope that the music we release helps as a tiny, tiny piece of a larger puzzle to establish a diverse, more nuanced yet adequate idea of how musically vibrant this very diverse region once has been and also still is. At the same time we do not want anyone to misunderstand this compilation as a selection of songs to represent Arabic musical history of the 1970s and 1980s. This compilation is nothing more than a very personal curation of songs we like and in no way reflects on what has been popular in a general sense. - Habibi Funk, from their official Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
A1 Fadoul– Bsslama Hbibti
A2 Bob Destiny– Wang Dang
A3 Attarazat Addahabia– Unknown
A4 Jalil Bennis Et Les Golden Hands– Mirza
B1 Sharhabeel Ahmed– Irkos Farfesh
B2 Belbao– Casablanca Shuffle
B3 Mallek Mohamed– Rouhi Ya Hafida
B4 Freh Khodja– La Coladera
C1 Kamal Keila– Al Asafir
C2 Ahmed Malek– Tape 19.11
C3 Hamid El Shaeri*– Ayonha
C4 Ahmed Malek– Bossa
D1 Samir* & Abboud– Games
D2 Al Massrieen– Sah
D3 Gharbi Sadok* & Georges Garzia– Lala Tibki
D4 Dalton (2)– Soul Brother
Release Date: 1 December 2017
