Mashrouʼ Leila is not a bandʼs name. It is not a proper noun per se; Mashrouʼ Leila is Arabic for ʻan overnight projectʼ lusting out a microphone, a violin, a bass, two guitars, drums and keyboards. It started out as a music workshop at the American University of Beirut in 2008, an open platform for students of architecture and design, somewhere to experiment with sounds and make things audible. Haig Papazian, Carl Gerges, Hamed Sinno, Omaya Malaeb, Andre Chedid, Firas Abou Fakher and Ibrahim Badr have enjoyed this sound fetish savoring its façade of nonchalance and feeding on its lack of genre – sustaining their collective as Mashrouʼ Leila, an experiment. 

You can hear Leila, cascading melts of masculine vocals only suspended with thrusts of violin, beats and bass – attacked by neurotic melody that means no harm – sometimes tender, even sometimes on pause. Through the music, you can smell where Leila has been, in bed sheets, on sidewalks, jasmines in riﬂes and spilled coffee on dresses as she made you play with aubergines, dancing her dance. Music has constantly been their place to play with things, to match and mis-match, a project. 

In the various performances, Mashrouʼ Leila is a constant attempt to taste and produce, more than happy to harvest anyone from the audience as a guest in their encores. They have performed around Lebanon since 2008, playing in various venues in Beirut, taking over supposed public piazzas as well as clubs, pubs, hybrids and the such – they also played in Zahle, Sour, Jounieh, Saida and Deir el Qamar, each of which pushed forward their thinking about how to go about their music, lyrics and performance. It is only when Mashrouʼ Leila goes live, that you can actually catch a glimpse of Leila. As it talks to you of Beirut, the city that tastes of the absurd, the product of its day-to-day experiences, its stubborn security and lack of the latter, its musical bombshells, incoherent sexuality and thrusting pleasure…narcotic pain – as it brings forward hints of Arabic Tarab, rock, to folk pop, electro, you can see Leila in every man and woman in the silent- come-raving audience. In this trajectory, they participated in music workshops and concerts in Amman and Cairo to maneuver their way into a pan-Arab music scene, to know and to announce, more importantly to grow, musically. 

In March 2009, Mashrouʼ Leila won the Lebanese Modern Music Contest jury prize and public vote organized by Radio Liban in partnership with CCF, Incognito and the Basement. They recorded their debut album with B-root Productions, released in December 2009. The music in the album is a reclamation of the aftertaste; sequel-ing a dose of Beirut.

written by Raafat Majzoub

Le label Dinamyte presente la Chanteuse Algérienne Cheikha Rabia, l' une des dernière héritière du Rai ancien. Diva du Raï. La résonance   de sa voix androgyne & puissante  invite à la Trance. Un projet audacieux qui traverse les cultures et les frontières musicales  bouleverse les clichés, et renverse les stéréotypes du "genre" .  Fusionner des musiques traditionnelles et acoustiques avec les nouvelles sonorités électriques et électroniques. Ce prelude est à la transe répétitive ce que la techno et le rock ont gardé d'emblématique des Rythmes d’Afrique. 


RABIA is a new musical experience at the initiative of the musician producer Dinah Douieb which presents the musical career of the singer Algerian Cheikha Rabia. A bold project that crosses cultures and borders. A challenge of successfully merge the traditional and acoustic music with new electrical and electronic sounds. Cheikha Rabia is one of the last heir of this ancient Rai will always remain our reference to musical construction of his compositions. Constructive change that overturns clichés, stereotypes and reverse the "genre". The resonance of his voice invites Trance. Cavernous, androgynous voice is powerful, an exceptionally serious, mesmerizing tone, a prelude to the iconic repetitive trance rhythms of Africa.


Oum Raï 
DJ/ Radio/ Writer
Cultural Mediator

معازف | مجلة الموسيقى الأولى والأخيرة من نوعها في العالم

NEW ALBUM "TESLAM", out NOW on Abduction 

The Invisible Hands is a transcontinental collaboration between Alvarius B. (Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls) and four stellar young musicians from Cairo, Egypt: Cherif El-Masri, Aya Hemeda (both formerly of the popular Egyptian group Eskenderella), Adham Zidan and Magued Nagati. On Teslam, The Invisible Hands expand the already panoramic range of their eponymous debut LP with a haunting set of melodic, impeccably crafted songs whose vintage psych/hard-rock edge conjures up early Alice Cooper almost as often as it recalls Sun City Girls and 20th-century icons like Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg. The band's exquisite sonic palette is deepened by Cairo-based guest musicians Mohamed Ibrahim, Mohamed 'Moe' Asem, and Sammy Sayed, as well as by longtime SCG compatriot Eyvind Kang. Recorded in Cairo between 2013 and 2014, Teslam represents a further evolution of Alvarius B.'s peerlessly idiosyncratic pop sensibility, which is just as volatile and unclassifiable as his more experimental work. His songwriting -- both on his own, and in partnership with Cherif El-Masri -- is marked by a unity of purpose that has compressed countless musical and emotional incongruities into a handful of sharp-edged, pitch-black jewels. A brooding track composed by keyboardist Adham Zidan ('The Great Implosion') perfectly complements the record's uneasy mood. As usual, Alvarius B.'s lyrics comprise an apocalyptic pile-up of cruel metaphors at the intersection of culture, politics and international crime. But they take on new power and new implications as sung by El-Masri and Hemeda, whose seductive voices are as inviting as a welcome mat at the gates of hell. Each song stands on its own while also fitting into a planet-sized jigsaw puzzle detailing dark associations and secret narratives that stretch back as far as the foundation of the world. Arguably Alvarius B.'s most accessible work to date, Teslam is a generously baited steel-jaw trap for the unwary listener. Like The Invisible Hands' 2013 debut, Teslam inevitably reflects the precarious political circumstances in which it was conceived and recorded. As such, it's a vivid document not just of an unlikely musical collaboration, but also of a critical moment of hope, defiance, rage and sorrow in one of the world's most venerable cities. [This limited-edition razor-edged stainless-steel CD comes in a beautiful die cut balsawood jacket that folds out to form a fully operational guillotine. Just kidding, but it does come as a digipak CD with lyrics booklet and lovely artwork]. --B. Kearney	

Ruben Lahav, better known as Black Lulu, is a middle-eastern musicologist and producer from Jaffa. 
As an integral part of the Israeli & Palestinian music scenes, Lahav is the originator of the “Disco Mahshi” line of parties and behind countless tracks and remixes. 
With releases on Batov Music and London’s University of Tropical Sound and support by Acid Arab & Akuphone, Black Lulu’s fusion of traditional eastern instruments & rhythms with modern club sounds appeals to younger ears and dancefloors from Jordan to Berlin.

For booking / Remixes / All inquires : elgiganponil@yahoo.com

الحريه لفلسطين

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