dania - leiley

this one came to me after i found it on a backup disc that i was storing for a friend of mine. i was her usual go to guy when it came to problems with her computer and she was sending in the damn thing for a fix or was it changing the thing for a new one? i can't remember, it's over 10 years or so. anyhow, she listen to more arabic music than me and the things needed backing up was documents, pictures and mp3s.

this song along with a few others became a few of my favourite tracks and i started really getting into arabic music. eventually i got into more than the mainstream habibi-pop however this track isn't one of those abdl halim hafiz, warda al-jazairia or mayada al-hannawi tracks but habibi-pop.

it was infact quite a big hit and it strayed out of the region thanks to the transglobal underground remix which was a lot of arabic chillout compos. i love that version and it was the rendition i heard first and i believe the video for the track uses that. i like the original a bit more though since the habibi pop of the 90's still felt like they used traditional arabic instruments played live even though it was backed up by drum-machines.

the drums machine and computers wasn't that prominent until a few years after and then you heard the influences of cheiron, timbaland/darkchild and etc. but i have to emphasise that "leiley" wasn't any less west-influenced than a natacha atlas track.

buy here (7digital)

i also have to talk about the other transglobal underground remix that exist on a few compilations and is a wet dream to be honest. i think it's called "way out mix" or "dusk to dawn mix" and comes in two forms. an eight minute version and a glorious eighteen minute version and the former is an edit of the latter.

i emailed tgu about this version and tim whelan mentioned that this version came about after they finished their main remix is a lengthy workout with the material from the session. transglobal undergrounded added quite a lot of their own material into their remix and it was a case of fucking around in the studio.

i love it since it has this acid-like sound that's deep into the mix and buzzes away and resonates quite waggly halfway in to the track. sort of the acidline in massive attack's "production" and i think these two tracks are sonic cousins only with more goblet drums and arabic sounds.