Land of Kush - Against The Day - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Renowned Montréal/Cairo composer Sam Shalabi returns with his exhilarating and utterly genre-bending big band Land of Kush. The trenchantly-titled Sand Enigma bristles with defiant exuberance, restless creative energy, and electrifying cross-cultural expression - the band's most accomplished, acute and accessible album to date (though don't expect 'easy listening' from this boundary-pushing hydra-headed entity). Sand Enigma is a wildly diverse and hugely compelling tour de force of modern composition that pulses with emotion and experimentation, blending avant-garde, psychedelic, Middle Eastern, out-jazz, electronic, and improv/free music tropes to stunning effect. The 75-minute opus, brilliantly recorded by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart, Matana Roberts) captures a band on fire, flowing through composed set-pieces, improvisational turns, harmolodic gestural and textural interplay, bursts of fervent groove, and fearless, feral experimentation. While the bounty of heavy-hitting instrumental players are too numerous to call out here, Sand Enigma notably features two new Land of Kush collaborators, both of them leading lights of Cairo's burgeoning avant-electronic scene Nadah El Shazly and Maurice Louca. As Alan Bishop of Sublime Frequencies raves InchShalabi raises the bar for modern psychedelic music with Land of Kush, weaving a seamless montage of styles in a transcendent way that is rarely, if ever, achieved.Inch Album Tracks 1. Aha 2. Domyat 1331 3. Safe Space 4. Broken Maqams 5. Sand Enigma 6. SSSSSS 7. Recuerdo 8. Bone Mass I 9. Bone Mass II 10. Bone Mass III 11. Ana 12. Trema 13. Dol 14. Tensor

Following several visits to the city over the years, Osama (Sam) Shalabi moved to Cairo in 2011, arriving at an apartment one block from Tahrir Square, in the midst of Egypt's 'Arab Spring'. Shalabi describes the Big Mango, his 2013 phenomenal work for his Land of Kush big-band, as Incha love letter to CairoInch framed by Inchthe beautiful, surreal madness of the city... as joyous, horrific, historical events were unfoldingInch. Album Tracks 1. Faint Praise 2. Second Skin 3. The Pit, Pt. 1 4. The Pit, Pt. 2 5. Sharm El Bango 6. Mobil Nil 7. St Stefano 8. Drift Beguine 9. The Big Mango

Canadian avant-garde/psychedelic veteran, Sam Shalabi, returns with his second album under the 'Land of Kush' moniker, once again recorded for the esteemed Constellation (Godspeed, Silver Mt. Zion etc.) tag. On this , Shalabi has gathered together over 20 like-minded musicians from the Canadian scene to create a mesmerizing brew which mixes psychedelia, avant-garde, free-form rock, free jazz excursions, dark chamber music and minimal drones. Highly recommended to fans of Godspeed, Can, Sun Ra, Sun City Girls etc. Album Tracks 1. The 1st and the Last 2. Scars 3. Boo 4. Tunnel Visions 5. Fisherman 6. Monogamy 7. [Untranslated]