Baligh Hamdy – Love Story
On this instrumental record, Baligh Hamdy continues in the style that’s also on the earlier EP Gada (featured on Waxidermy). The arrangements combine Western and Eastern instruments, with wild rhythms and Eastern melodies. There’s a drum kit, which you don’t hear that much on Arabian records, plus saxophone and electric guitar. Wild keyboard sounds are in the mix too. As on the Gada EP, all compositions are original, apart from one. If you’re looking for peace of mind, well, the arrangements and playing are pretty heavy! The energy contained in the recording comes through in ultra busy rhythms combined with quarter tone virtuozo solo’s in less than soothing registers. The slower tracks offer headtrips for the more exotica oriented listener. The record’s title comes from Francis Lai’s Love Story, covered here in oriental style (like Omar Khorshid’s version on his Belly Dance nr 3 LP). Mirrored on the other side is Baligh Hamdy’s own terrific composition My Love Story. Here it’s done with an eerie intro utilizing a spacey tone that whistles the melody like it’s from some middle eastern mystery movie. The rest of the group joins in with a cool, dragging rhythm and there are canoun bubbles coming from the deep. Some other worldly keyboard finishes it nicely.
“My Love Story”
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9 Comments
Great music!Do you have anymore where that came from?
Howdy there, amazing track. I’ve enjoyed all of the Baligh Hamdy stuff you’ve posted but this may be the best yet.
Don’t mean to seem greedy but is there any chance we could get this track for download and not just as a streaming flash player?
Cheers,
JS
appreciate the education
haven’t heard a sound so intersedting since Omar Souleyman – “Leh Jani”
would love the mp3 of this
respect
t
This just could be better than “Gada”. Wow.
wondering if you have some of these middle-east / belly dance / orientalist LPs for sale? tried your contact us page, but it doesn’t appear to be working…
zz
Thanks for the replies.
There’s a way to download the file but I can’t remember how. Must be easy to look up.
@zz – this is not a sales website but your enthusiasm is appreciated. I’ll check out your bellydance site, looks fun.
Another great track indeed ! I just saw this review again and I’m looping it at the moment.
If you guys need to download any of the streaming tracks at waxidermy, just check the html page source. In this case, the url of the mp3 looks like this:
soundFile=http%3A%2F%2Fwaxidermy.com%2Fimages%2FBaligh_Hamdy_My_Love_Story.mp3
so, the link is:
http://waxidermy.com/images/Baligh_Hamdy_My_Love_Story.mp3
thanks fauxteur, most helpful.
peace
t
Beautifully sad! What a find. These are the dreams that vinyl is made of….