Charif Megarbane and Ali – 'Tirakat'
Stop. Listen.
Tirakat is a very funky album. From the album description:
Tirakat brings together Jakarta-based trio Ali and Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Charif Megarbane in a collaboration shaped by long-standing cultural exchange between Indonesia and the Arab world. Ali’s blend of 1970s Indonesian psychedelic funk, Melayu traditions, disco grooves and Arab melodic forms meets Charif’s long-running exploration of cross-regional sound, rooted in a shared musical vocabulary rather than genre.
Bar the hardcore rock and hip-hop, this is how Beastie Boys could have sounded if they'd grown up in Jakarta and Lebanon instead of the USA.
This is inventive, extremely groovy, and romantic. Strings mingling with fuzzed guitars and beats that would make any hip-hop producer salivate? Just check out the track 'Pejokan Funk'. You want a hazy, arpeggio-riddled harpsichord dream track set to the oboe and sitar? Try 'SILK END'.
Don't sleep on this. Buy or stream it via this page.