Review Summary: Obscure Middle Eastern dub that is definitely worth a listen
I'm not familiar with dub at all, nor do I seek out releases for the genre, so how did i find this ? Raz Mesinai (Badawi) gets mentioned usually when talking about Muslimgauze (an artist i am quite fond of). They both make percussion heavy Middle Eastern music, with added electronic elements, the main focus being on rhythm.
Also Raz is part of Sub Dub an Illbient band, style which was popularized (if not invented) by Scorn, another band i quite like.
Now what we have here is a very diverse dub/electronic/ambient album. It opens with the great "Critical Combustion" which basically tells you what the album is about, percussion heavy Middle Easter music with some electronic elements thrown in (as i said earlier). What makes it stand out from other ambient/electronic releases are the constant changes that happen. "War On Mt. Zion" starts off with an air raid siren and continues with faint cartoon gun sound effects that really paint a story told through sound. "Rhythmic Flux" and "Semetic Stepper" are way higher tempo making them the catchier songs on the album. Both "Yashar" and "Soldier of Midian" have these string instruments on top of the normal drum patterns which keeps things fresh and makes them stand out. There are also some slower more chilled out tracks such as "Den of Dreams" and "Cooper's Corner" which are a nice break from all the fast tempo songs that precede them .
The biggest oddity on this entire album has to be "Tall King Dub" , which is a normal percussion heavy song, but instead of drums we get Raz drumming with his mouth.It comes out of nowhere and it's so odd it's hard to describe yet it ends up being the best track on the album. This and "Jihad" are the tracks that separate this album from similar artists like, again, Muslimgauze. These tracks (Tall King Dub more so than Jihad) show that Raz has a sense of humor and that he can integrate it in his music without being embarrassing or cringey.
The problem is that after Tall King Dub the album loses a lot of steam. There are good tracks of course like "Semetic Stepper" , "Cooper's Corner" (which i talked about and) and "Return Of The Giant Fruit Flies" which has some weird electronic sounds in it, but outside of those the the second half really doesn't compare to the first (not bad just not as good). The closer however "Ocean Of Tears (for Rav Carlebach)" is quite good, featuring mostly a flute and changing the mood of the album quite drastically. Most songs up until now have been quite upbeat but this one seems real personal and sad.
So if you like Dub or Middle Eastern music i think you should check this one out,it doesn't get enough attention despite it being extremely well made, diverse and catchy.
