Various artists - Music From the Arab World, Part 2 review | global album of the month

The Guardian 0

(Habibi Funk)
With nods to Bob Marley, the Bee Gees and more, this compilation charts cross-cultural influence on north African and Middle Eastern acts

Since 2015, Berlin-based label Habibi Funk has carved out a specific and increasingly popular niche by reissuing lesser-known records by artists from north Africa and the Middle East. Treading carefully around the colonial resonances of white-owned labels purporting to “discover” these acts, label founder Jannis Stürtz splits profits 50-50 between the label and the artists (or their estates).

The label released its first Eclectic Selection compilation in 2017 – one that featured everything from Fadoul’s Casablancan funk to Algerian Ahmed Malek’s expansive instrumentals. The cover of this second instalment encapsulates its culture-spanning ethos, depicting Malek at an ice-cream bar in Osaka in 1970 – a trip he later said came to inspire his own varied approach to genre. Malek is featured here again, his track Casbah providing a sprightly horn arrangement over a loose disco groove. Fadoul also reappears with the driving funk of Ahl Jedba, his throaty vocals displaying his contemporaneous kinship with James Brown’s own delivery.