This Week's Free Lab Radio - Muqata'a مُقاطعَة (Boycott), Palestine

This week's Free Lab Radio features a bespoke mix by Palestine/ USA-based music producer and performer Muqata'a (translates as Boycott). Muqata'a used to be part of Ramallah Underground until he began working solo on at first hip hop and now a more blended mix of hip hop and experimental electronica.

Hear his latest dark electronica track here, below.

We've featured Muqata'a in the past and last November 2015 we travelled to Abu Dhabi's Noise of the Middle East festival where we played the same stage. With a modest array of sound manipulating gear, Muqata'a had the audience swaying to his mesmeric, unhurried sounds, sat on Persian carpets before the stage.

 

Broadcasts Times: 

 

On air on 104.4FM across London, online and on digital on Resonance104.4FM: -

Saturdays 11-midnight UK time, (2-3am GST Gulf Standard Time)

Repeats Tuesday 4am UK time (7am GST)

http://player.resonancefm.com/

 

On digital across Brighton and online: 

On Resonance Extra : - 

The following Friday 19:30-20:30 UK time 

(10:30-11.30pm GST)  

Podcasts: 

Visit www.mixcloud.com/Fari

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Acid Arab Special

A exclusive mix from this French duo who've been producing and mixing tracks to feed their passion for Maghrebi, Egyptian and Middle Eastern tunes for some years now on a mega world tour that in March 2016 included a show in the Israel-controlled Old City in Jerusalem(!) as well as Tunis, Casablanca and Istanbul. Recently we aired a preview of their new release feat. Sofiane Saidi 'La Hafla' on our sister show Six Pillars, now for almost an hour of tunes sent in to us for a special broadcast on Resonance104.4FM.

Broadcasts on air, digital and online: 
11-midnight British Summer Time (02 - 03am Gulf Standard Time)
Repeats Tuesday 04 - 05am BST (07 - 08am GST)

On Resonance Extra digital & online radio in Brighton
Friday 10th June 19:30 - 20:20

For artists in this week's mix see list below, none are by Acid Arab aside from the A-WA remix.

Toni Frangieh & Setrak Sarkissian

Fawez

Rahbani Brothers

Crawling With Tarts

Mariza Koch

Mikis Theodorakis

Nino Nikolaidis

Stalos  סטלוס

A-WA

Mohammed Assaf

Ahmad Abanda

Mohamed Jamal

Sato

Nazem Al Ghazali

Rüdiger Lorenz

Abbud Abdel Aal

Golden Teacher

Saad Lamjarred

Kenzi Bourras

Milen Natchev

Matoub Lounès

Cheikha Djenia

Elias Rahbani

 

The Acid Arab team are: Guido Minisky, Hervé Carvalho, Pierrot Casanova and Nicolas Borne with keyboards: by Kenzy Bourras who has worked with Rachid Taha.

New Podcast - Kairo is Koming

 A Free Lab Radio takeover by producer Ismael from Cairo, Egypt of his own and other tracks mostly made in Cairo.  Ismael, an electronic musician from Cairo, Egypt is part of the arts collective Kairo Is Koming (KIK).

For this ambient, electronic radio show, Ismael recorded a mix featuring works from his two EPs Odd On Out, and PreData, with works buy artists from Cairo and the region. Long and rolling, sometimes distorted sounds, with Arabic and Maghrebi tones over ambient industrial and sometimes domestic noise is what you can expect from Ismael. 

The set was made in March 2016, Egypt.

Broadcasts Saturdays 11-midnight GMT, (3-4am GST).
Repeats Tuesday 4am GMT, 8am GST.

Visit www.mixcloud.com/Fari
for Free Lab Radio podcasts.

Also broadcasting on Fridays 19:30-20:30 GMT on ResonanceFM's sister station Resonance Extra, which broadcasts on digital and online only in Brighton, UK.

Track listings below:

1. Intro

2. MSYLMA - العين بالعين

3. Ismael - Same day, backwards.

4. Ismael - III

5. ZULI - 150825Bv2(9.5)

6. Nur - live @ Noizmachin (exceprt)

7. Bosaina - Tokyo 6 LIVE Version

8. ZULI - 150329Bv3

9. MSYLMA - ظل تحت شجرة الزقوم

10. Ismael - Detour (A)

11. ZULI - 150428Cv2(9.5)

12. Ismael - IV

13. transition I

14. Ismael - prdt (2)

15. Nur - Beyond Visuals: An audible exploration of Divine Representations in Islam (excerpt)

16. Ismael - untitled

17. transition II

18. Ismael - untitled

19. transition III

20. Ismael - untitled

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Love Songs from Lebanon 1980s

DJ Umb from Birmingham, calls himself a "Conceptual" DJ". This particular playlist, features gems from 1980's heyday of Lebanese pop and love ballad, and brings Arabic poetry and melody to more Western classical and European and American forms.

"You do not have to understand the Arabic language to fall in love with a lot of these tunes! Indeed, the Arabic Voice and its music is some of the most beautiful & heart-breaking in the whole world, it’s just that many of you don’t know it, just yet!" Dj Umb


All his mixes are made on LIVE/1Cut on Pioneer 1000's MKII CDJ's & a DJM 600 mixer. The mix also featured in the Guardian Playlist: Middle Eastern and North African section.

Free Lab Radio, experiments in dance music, broadcasts Saturday 11-midnight, repeats Tuesday 4am GMT.  Twitter: #FreeLabRadio
 

Tonight's Free Lab Radio: Sonic Traces From the Arab World

Street Musician in Beirut by Norient

Sonic Traces From the Arab World

This week on Free Lab Radio, we sample a limited vinyl record, full of noises from the Arab World. 

These include propaganda music by political groups and clans, psychedelic Arabic Rock from the late 1960s and 1970s, the noises of bombs and machine guns, the now ubiquitous synthesized Electro-Sha’bi from Cairo, old and rare shellac recordings, Death Metal, Rap, Electro-Acoustic Music, and Musique Concrète.

Collected and mixed by the Norient collective. The release comes via Discrepant in London. Previous broadcasts by us of Norient include Art Dubai 2013, for the radio commission Falgoosh Radio at Art Dubai.

Broadcasts Saturday 25th 11-midnight, repeats the following Thursday 2am GMT. 

Listen on air in London on 104.4FM or online elsewhere with this handy Radioplayer. 
 

This Week's #FreeLabRadio Show - Experiments in Marrakech

Moroccan producer Abdellah M. Hassak presents a bespoke one hour mix for FreeLabRadio; DUBOSMIUM in Marrakech.

Using field recordings he has made in his country, samples and electronically produced sounds, Hassak's work, produced under the name DUBOSMIUM, is smoothly put together and unique.

Hassak is an active proponent of the Free Culture Movement and runs free workshops in Casablanca with a team of cultural activists. 

We first fell for his mix Carnival in Casbah which as soundscapes go (we've listened to so many over the years), is a great piece of work and naturally for Hassak, free to download.

Tonight's Free Lab Radio - Bobby Azarbayejani as "Sighup"

11-midnight March 1st on 104.4FM in London, online elsewhere

Tapdup Logo, dropping vowels is in

A bespoke mix for Free Lab Radio from the half-Azeri producer 'sighup' aka Bobby Azarbayejani, co-founder of Tapdup Records in Seattle, WA.

'sighup''s music is deeply inspired by religious and spiritual thought, especially of radical Islam, and tonight's mix explores these elements. 'sighup’ just released a cassette single titled “OBE(T)/ARMY” on Tapdup Records. ‘sighup’ is an electronic musician based in Seattle, WA. As co-founder of Tapdup Records, an outlet for digitally produced electronic music, his sound is influenced by Chicago Footwork, ambient music, and non-Western music.

1. Ya Makkah - Traditional Arab Naat (‘sighup’ edit)

This piece is also known as Ya Taiba. I don’t know who the singer in this sample is, but I’ve gotten the tune stuck in my head pretty much every day since I first heard it, so I figured it would be fun to play with.

2. Hengameh Paykareh (“Time of War”) by Sadiq Ahangaran (‘sighup’ edit)

This is a song from around the time of the Iran/Iraq war, and I can only assume the crowd singing along are a bunch of young soldiers off to go to war. Sadiq has a ton of other music, and it’s mostly about Husayn, martyrdom or Karbala.

3. UNKNOWN. (‘sighup’ edit)

Unfortunately I lost the original name of this song. I think it’s a Hezbollah propaganda song I found on YouTube.

4. Darāmad (Homāyun) by Akbar Seyyed Hoseyn Tāherzādeh

This is a piece appearing on the 2014 Honest Jon Records compilation titled “Let No One Judge You”. My dad was so excited about this release when I told him about it.

http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid=43149&LabelID=14815

5. SSPORTS - 36MAFIAVGROUPER

This is a “mash up” of sorts by my Tapdup label mate SSPORTS. As its title suggests it is a mix between Three Six Mafia’s “Late Night Tip” and Grouper’s “Wind and Snow”. Personally, I think it’s away better than the original Three Six Mafia song.

https://soundcloud.com/ssports/36mafiavgrouper

6. C_L_E_A_N_E_R_S - “Real Raga Shit Pt. 1” (Excerpt)

This band is great. They’re from Brooklyn and have been putting out amazing stuff. Loads of beautiful found sounds. Check out this release on Bootleg Tapes.

http://bootlegtapes.bandcamp.com/album/real-raga-shit-vol-1

7. A phone call from Aghayeh Karbalaii

Bahram Moshiri runs a radio show called “Sarzamineh Javid”. Aghayeh Karbalaii called in to recite an excerpt from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

7. Cedaa - Tiffany

Cedaa is a producer from the San Francisco Bay Area. This track came out in 2010, which is like a decade ago in juke terms, but it has really stood out to me since I first heard it three and a half years ago.

https://soundcloud.com/cedaa/tiffany

8. Millie & Andrea - Stage 2

Millie & Andrea are Andy Stott and Miles Whittaker. This track has been described by my roommate as “what SSPORTS would sound like if any of his songs were longer than a minute”. 

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/905801-millie-andrea-stage-2

Win Two Tickets to Yasmine Hamdan, London This Week!

Singer Yasmine Hamdan has been nurturing her solo career since disbanding her popular Lebanese duo act Soap Kills, and have made her a recognised force for experimental pop not just in the Arab-speaking world, but beyond.

Hamdan is due to perform at Bush Hall, London this Thursday 14th October 2013. To win yourself two tickets read on!

One iteration of her solo career has been Y.A.S. with Mirwais (of 80s French electronic new wave band Taxi Girl, and producer/co-wroter of several Madonna albums). HAmdan then began working Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague (band)) writing and producing her self-titled solo debut album, which came out in France and Lebanon in 2012 on Kwaidan Records), and is released internationally (in a revised version with five new tracks) in 2013 by Crammed Discs under the title Ya Nass.
To witness the pop, folk and electronic arrangements with melodies and lyrics inspired by various Middle-Eastern traditions, write in to us and claim your tickets by answering this question:

What was the first album released by Soapkills in 1999 called? 
Answers to info at resonancefm dot com - we'll pick one within 12 hours!

Hamdan is due to appear in Jim Jarmusch's forthcoming film, and is currently writing and recording an original soundtrack for the theatre production Rituel Pour une Métamorphose by Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous.