Probably two to three years ago we received a message from Hassel Dehaes, who shared a 7” vinyl he had found in Belgium with us, asking whether we knew anything about it. We were immediately electrified by the immense beauty of the song and tried to find out anything about the artist. That turned out to be not very easy. Eventually, we managed to get in touch with the artist’s daughter Reem Mitten who helped us license the song from her mother and was also happy to contribute the following text about her mother’s musical career.

„My Mother's journey in music first started off when she was 17, still only a student at Lycée Dar Essalam Rabat, going by her Maiden name Douae Abd al-Rahman Hassani (now Douae Mitten.) Her only experience in music was that of a spectator, eyes for her mother, the singer, Bahija Idriss and her father, Al-Rahman Al-Hassani, a composer. My Mother's first experience in music was with the song “The way of lovers” in Egypt 1984. It was a melody composed by her father and the lyrics were written by journalist and poet Omer Battisha. This was the first time my mum had ever worked with a band, which essentially resulted into a room filled with esteemed musicians and herself. By the time, my Mother had only ever sang in front of her school friends. “The way of lovers” was originally composed for Mayada Hanawe. Due to creative differences she didn't end up singing the song. Somehow my grandmother Bahija Idriss had suggested to my mother’s father, that mum could go to Egypt, where her father had been residing, to sing the song. During that trip to Egypt, she had the honor of meeting Mohamed Abdel Wahab and that is what would be the beginning of my mothers musical journey.

“Parlez moi de lui” came to fruition due to a family visit to Belgium. A music producer there had contacted my grandfather to ask, if his daughter wanted to do a cover of the joyous french song “Parlez moi de lui.” My mother then proceeded to translate the entire song into Arabic in one evening. The following day, she was recording the song. Another important experience!

Although music was my mother's passion, her career did not exceed more than a few songs. It had been a short and sweet experience but her life took a different direction. She came on to be a stewardess for Emirates airline having many different and amazing adventures. Shortly after a couple years she went on to meet my father Alan, an amazing Irish man. They moved to London, where they still reside, and had four children, me included.“

Text by Reem Mitten

Habibi Funk 015: Douaa - Haditouni

Hawalat (Habibi Funk 030)

Chou Ostak

Oghneya

Matar Naem

Rouhi Ya Hafida / Al Asafir

Rouhi Ya Hafida

Pre-order: habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/al-zman-saib

We're very happy to announce our second Habibi Funk re-release by Fadoul, Morocco's answer to James Brown.

8 tracks of raw Arabic funk music, none of these have ever been reissued before. Up until recently Fadoul (or Fadaul, or Faddoul, the transcribtion of his name to latin letters differs) had not been rediscovered, as a matter of fact most of those songs still left no trace whatsoever in the world wide web. It took us 2 years and countless trips to Morocco to find the artists family to license the release from them.

"Is that Arabic? Very FUXXXING COOL!!“
DJ Nu-Mark (Jurassic 5)

From the press release:
“There was one record in particular that caught my attention. It was by a band called „Fadaul et les Privileges“ and mentioned James Brown in the writing credits of the song „Sid Redad“ on the a-side. Needless to say my expectations were high. The first time I heard the record I was blown away. A cover of James Brown’s „Papa got a brand new bag“ sung in arabic and backed by a rawly recorded three piece band. It’s hard to describe the music without having listened to it, but as time went by I somehow ended up summarizing it as Arabic funk played with a punk attitude. A description, that I feel, comes fairly close. Soon I became obsessed by the record but nobody seemed to know anything about the vinyl or the artists, even google didn’t help. A true gem forgotten about through the passages of time. I kept on traveling to Morocco trying to find infos about the artists, which did not end up being fruitful during the first couple of trips. What kept me going was the fact that over the course of the next years I kept on finding different records by Fadoul, in the end a total of four. They all had the raw sound aesthetic of „Sid Redad“. Energetic performances, a mighty voice and a very lively atmosphere that was preserved in the recordings.”

Fadoul - Laylat Al Jadba (Pre-order link in the description)

pre-order: https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/musique-original-de-films

هل تريدون الاستماع الى ما كنا نشتغل عليه الفترة الماضية ؟ يمكنم الآن أن تطلبو مسبقا إصدار " حبيبي فانك " الثالث، حيث سنأخذكم معنا هذه المرة بأنغامنا إلى الجزائر. إن أحمد مالك بمثابة إينيو موريكوني الجزائر، إذ ألف و أنتج معظم موسيقى الأفلام الجزائرية في السبعينيات. موسيقى رائعة، مفعمة بالأحاسيس و غير اعتيادية. بعد موافقة تامة من أهل الراحل، يمكنكم و أخيرا الاستماع للمرة الأولى إلى إحدى إنتاجاته، أو النقر على الرابط من أجل طلب مسبق.

I still remember the first time I heard Ahmed Malek. It was 2012. Back then I didn’t know much about Arabic music, but I was about to leave Berlin for a couple of weeks to go to Tunisia. I was working as a project manager for a music recoding session which ended up being released by Jakarta Records as the “Sawtuha” release. I knew I would have some time off during my stay and I was certain that I would dedicate some of this time to diggin. I asked some people whether they knew of any titles that I should look for. Roskow, who also ended up re-mastering this release, told me about an Algerian composer called Ahmed Malek whose music was also released in Tunisia. 

Fast forward three years: Arabic records have become my number one hobby and luckily I got my hands on a copy of Ahmed Malek’s “Musique Originale De Films” album. I already knew some of the tracks but listening to the music the way it was originally released, and not as a crappy Youtube version, made me fall in love with Malek’s compositions all the more. It manages to create this very special mood: melancholic and reflective, emotional and touching, but never depressing. Even without having seen any of the pictures created for this, it immediately brings visuals to one’s imagination. 

Around that time I became captivated with the idea of reissuing some of Ahmed Malek’s music. I knew some people had tried to locate his family but, but with no success. In the end it was an incredible amount of luck that made it possible for you to read these words and listen to this record. I had a DJ gig in Beirut playing old Arabic records and I mentioned my passion for Ahmed Malek’s music to a friend. She said she knew one person in Algier, and as much as it would be a shot in the dark, she could ask her if she had an idea of how to find Malek’s family. Two weeks went by before I heard back, and what I got was incredibly good news. Her Algerian friend was the neighbor of Ahmed Malek’s daughter! I’m not a spiritual person, but it felt like the universe wanted to see this release happen. 

I started to speak with Henya, Ahmed Malek’s daughter and she was more then happy with our idea. She assured us that her father would have loved the plan as well. She provided us with tons of awesome material, from great photos, to unseen video footage and unreleased tracks; she also told us more about her father’s life: 

Ahmed Malek was born on March, 6th 1932 at Bordj El Kiffan, Algiers. He was the oldest son of a family of 3 brothers and one sister. He went to work at a young age in factories to help his father to raise the family. His mother died when he was 12. It was then that decided he wanted to become a musician, and after graduating school he studied at the Algerian Conservatory. He gained recognition for his craft from an early stage and won several prizes and medals nationally and internationally (The "Premier grand prix des arts et des lettres de la composition" in 1972, the golden medal at the "Panafrican Festival" in 1976, and the "Prix du mérite national pour la composition musicale" in 1987). He was the conductor of the "Algerian Television Orchestra“ for many decades and represented his country at international events such as the Expo In Japan, Canada, Cuba and Spain. He passed on the 24th of July, 2008, at his home in El Mouradio, Algiers.


Habibi Funk 003: Ahmed Malek - Omar Gatlato (Unreleased version.  Pre-order link is description)

** OUT ON 30 JUNE 2017 **
http://www.piranha.de/piranha/various_artists/can_i_get_a_witness

Piranha turns 30!

Can I get a Witness? Yes, we can! Get a witness and listen to music from all over the world, one piece at a time, in a single scintillating session of two and a bit hours.

Local roots and international hybrids. Tradition and avant garde. Spiritual ecstasy and zest, political activism, purely psycho-physical dance crazes: Piranha Records has had it all for 30 solid years now – and counting!

From Nubia to Cairo

Ali Hassan Kuban - Mabruk (Congratulation)

Download & Support : https://hypeddit.com/track/yaz08s

More Closing Sounds Music
🎧 'Spiritual Deep' Playlist > spoti.fi/2S8PU3M
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🎈 All Closing Sets > goo.gl/owTXcZ

Connect with Closing Sounds
Facebook > www.facebook.com/Closingsounds
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Spotify > spoti.fi/2KnyGah

🔸Follow Artist: https://soundcloud.com/nacimgastli
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Mastering : @veytik for @art-vibes-music

Nouh Al Hamam

Free WAV Download

Maryam Saleh - Nouh Al Hamam (Nacim Gastli Edit) [Free Download]

We're super happy to announce the release of our 9th release. It's the only album by Sudanese band "The Scorpions" with Saif Abu Bakr on vocals (الترجمة العربية أسفله)With original copies on eBay selling for up to 1000$ we're excited to make it finally available for everyone (Outside of that shitty bootleg that was available a year or so ago. FUCK BOOTLEGGERS). The album was recorded on tour in Kuwait. The music is a unique combination of incredibly powerful horn arrangements, a vigorous drummer contributing a funky backbone and Saif's uniting all of these elements. The results range from instrumental tracks awaking memories of 1970s crime thriller soundtracks to more Sudanese-rooted tracks, a lot of them modernized versions traditional rhythms from the diverse regions of Sudan and even an excursion into Congolese Soukouss. While all of our reissues so far have been compilations in the sense that we put together our favorite selection of tracks by one artist, this album will be our first 1:1 re-release, simply because the quality of the albums does not fall off on a single track. With its eclectic influences it birthed a one-of-a-kind new mixture and serves as a blueprint for what we are looking for when we release music on Habibi Funk.

نحن في غاية السعادة بالاعلان عن اطلاق تاسع ألبوم لنا وهو الألبوم الوحيد لفرقة العقارب من السودان الذي سجل في الكويت ويشمل المطرب سيف أبو بكر. متحمسين لاتاحة الفرصة للجميع للاستماع الي هذا الألبوم الذي كان حتي الآن متوفرا اما في نسخته الأصلية علي اي-باي بمبالغ عالية (١٠٠٠ دولار) أو نسخ زائفة مسروقة ومحملة علي الانترنت فقط (ونعتبر هذه الممارسات غير مقبولة بتاتا!). 
تمزج موسيقي الفرقة - في تشكيلة فريدة من نوعها - بين أصوات الأبواق القوية والطبول كأساس للرتم الفنكي وصوت سيف الذي ينجح في توحيد كل هذه العناصر. التيجة.. ألبوم مكون من أغاني تتنوع ما بين المقطوعات الموسيقية التي تذكرك بموسيقي أفلام الجريمة والتشويق من السبعينات والأغاني الأقرب للموسيقي السودانية التقليدية المتأثرة من المناطق المختلفة في السودان (ونسمع أيضا شيء من السوكوس الكنغولي).
لأول مرة سنطلق البوم كما هو عندما سجلته الفرقة - علي عكس ألبوماتنا السابقة التي شملت أغاني اختارناها من ألبومات مختلفة لنفس الفرقة والسبب في هذا هو قناعنا أن كل أغاني هذا الألبوم علي نفس مستوي الجودة . ولّدت تأثيراتهم االموسيقية صوت فريد من نوعه والذي يعتبر بالنسبة لنا مقياس ومرجع للموسيقي التي نبحث عنها في حبيبي فنك.

Pre-Order

The Scorpions & Saif Abu Bakr - Farrah Galbi Aljadeed فرح قلبي الجديد

Mon Amour - De.Ville

label, dj and platform for a wide range of underappreciated music from north africa and west asia

Fadoul - Laylat Al Jadba (Pre-order link in the description)

habibi funk - حبيبي فنك