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Dinner Music 132: The weekly lineup

Dinner Music 132: The weekly lineup

arabic grooves, armenian pop music, iranian psych-rock

Jacqui Devaney's avatar
Jacqui Devaney
May 05, 2025
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Dinner Music
Dinner Music
Dinner Music 132: The weekly lineup
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This week we’re listening to funk and groove from the Middle East, Arabic artists, and a few places in between. I’v been listening to Ayonha by Hamid Al Shaeri a lot lately and it brought up a few other albums I’ve loved or have discovered recently, plus I shared the new(ish) Charif Megarbane album in the new music edition of the newsletter last week.

I’m in Mexico City right now and was reminded of the ways in which culture can dissolve into other cultures, endlessly. Al Pastor came from Lebanese immigrants. Chocolate came from the Yucatán. At one point, 80% of the world’s silver came from Mexico. I visited a very old Cathedral built next to (and from) an Aztec pyramid; inside, there were two organs, one made in Mexico and the other made in Europe, both of which were encased in a grand metal gate from China. What does this have to do with middle eastern and Arabic music? I made this edition of the newsletter before I left and thought the two, Mexico and this week’s loose theme, had very little to do with each other. I’m wrong, of course. Music, at its best, preserves a critical aspect of the artists culture, it gets to the beating heart of it, while stealing from the rest of the world, (mostly) respectfully. I suppose you could say that’s all art, or at least good art.

We begin with an absolutely, unbelievably incredible album from Hamlet Minassian, Armenian Pop Music. It’s basically a crime that I haven’t had this in a Dinner Music edition yet. I consider the experience of listening to “Alas-Alas” for the first time a profound moment in my life — I’d never heard anything quite like it, with such a build, and with such energy behind it. This dizzying and winsome spin on disco recorded in Iran (before the 1979 revolution) pulls from western instrumentation (think: synths and kick drums) and traditional Armenian songs to create long songs that seem to sweep us to another dimension. It’s my dream to hear, or play, this in a club someday with an audience that would appreciate it. Next, we move to one of my favorites, Elias Rahbani, a Lebanese musician, songwriter, and reality TV personality. Mosaic of the Orient is actually two albums—it was first released in two volumes—that sweeps through genres and instruments, both Western and pan-Arabic, and speaks to Rahbani’s genius as a musician, but also his playfulness. Belly Dance Fever is another excellent album from him, especially the track “Nadia’s Dance.” With Charif Megarbane, released on Habibi Funk, we get another album crafted through an interweaving of influence — Italian library, traditional Lebanese songs, afro-beat. Like Rahbani, Megarbane’s career has been extremely prolific; he’s created music under multiple identities and with many different bands. Hawalat sounds like the photo on the album cover: beautiful, wide open, and breathless. It’s like a soundtrack to a very nice summer’s day. Next, we have El Shab Arab’s Lw Kan (2023 Dinner Music) a groove-laden album at the center of tradition and western influence. Now, as in 2023, there’s not a lot that I can find online (in English at least) about the artist, other than I think he hails from Egypt and the album was released in the early 90s, but that’s what the internet will tell you. The album, however, says: dance. We end with the “godfather of Iranian psychedelic rock,” Kourosh Yaghmaei.

Enjoy.


Paid subscribers have access to the full Dinner Music archive (via Spotify and Apple Music), an after hours playlist, a “New York Grooves” playlist and more — hundreds of hours of groove, jazz, folk, samba, hi-life, disco, funk and more, lovingly selected.

Plus, paid subscribers get a monthly playlist (April’s just came out) and albums recs for new music and access to the “for consideration” weekly playlists (2-5 hours of additional music!).

To access the playlist for Dinner Music 132, consider upgrading and supporting the newsletter.


The playlist #132

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