Be Good to Your Badawi Self

 

Raz Mesinai is a veteran of the New York illbient scene. He was a vital member of recently posted Sub Dub. Under the Badawi moniker he mixes illbient's Dub & ambient electronics with Middle Eastern percussion. This is his full-length first release as Badawi. 

 

Badawi - Bedouin Sound Clash, ROIR USA RUSCD8229, 1996.
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Suspicions    
Suspicious Dub    
Pressurizor    
Big Foot    
Attack of the Giant Fruit Flies    
FX-57 Missile    
Lack of Oxygen to the Brain    
Lack of Dub to the Brain    
Cyborg Stepper    
Hi Fashion Version    
Audio Bomb Squad    
Turbo Auto Drive    
Badawi Dub    
Chamber of Dub    
Snake Charmer 

 

 

Badawi's first of two releases on the illbient label Asphodel is The Heretic of Ether (the other being 2006s Safe). This music could be from the Middle East of today or from two thousand years in the past or the future. It is haunting & ethereal. 

 

Badawi - The Heretic of Ether, Asphodel ASPH 0992, 1999.

CHAPTER 1: The Heretic -    
Intro    
Tired Soldiers    
A Voice from Six Corners    
Santur    
Enter the Heretic    
Fatal Confrontation (The Death of Gashka Gavör)

CHAPTER 2: The Etheric    
Entrance    
Arrival    
Fatal Confrontation (Gashka Meets the Gate Keeper)    
Welcoming    

CHAPTER 3: The Return Of Gashka Gavör -
Falling    
Fatal Confrontation (revisited)    
Return of the Heretic    
Awakening 

 

 

 

 

Fela Kuti once said "Music is the weapon". Jerusalem born / New York based Raz Mesinai clearly agrees. During the 2004 Republican Convention in New York rather than just joining the protesters, he booked a studio a few blocks away (One Soul Studios, NYC, August 24). His Badawi Quintet set up & improvised for 10 hours, focusing on their feelings of rage & hopelessness melded with hope, defiance, & anarchy. Over the next couple of years Raz engineered the recordings, then sent the material off to a bunch of international DJs, producers, & sound artists to remix the material.

The Badawi Quintet is great mix of clarinet, cello, bass, percussion, & electronics. It's fascinating to hear how the different mixers have interpreted it. There's a definite Dub vibe with a Middle Eastern flavor to much of the work.

This is an interesting & appealing release, quite dark & brooding. The thematic unity of the source material provides a solid link to some really disparate but always interesting approaches.

 

 

Raz Mesinai's Badawi - Unit of Resistance, ROIR RUSCD8307, 2007.

 

Gates of Chaos - Raz Mesinai vs Badawi

Market Place - Badawi Quintet

Poison Dripping Cinco - hhyScumclash vs Badawi

Jihad Remix - DJ Spooky vs Badawi

Bahr El Dumu Part I - Seth Ayyaz vs Badawi

Den of Drumz - Kode 9 vs Badawi

Out of Breath - Kreng vs Badawi

Knife the Ehterics - Filastine vs Badawi

Badawileaf - Marina Rosenfeld vs Badawi

Ipanema Under Fire - DJ Rupture vs Badawi

Bahr El Dumu Part II - Seth Ayyaz vs Badawi

Crows - Badawi vs Juakali

Enjoy,
NØ