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Title: Gnarled, ecstatic
Review: Egyptian classical, drawing on Indian influences (hence the title).A single 55 minute improvisation, serious, earthy and very slow building. Production sound is technically excellent but plain and unvarnished. The absence of gimmicks and artifice breeds an absorbing intensity.Duets between bright, sprangy sitar (Narenda Bataju) and the oud (Hussein el Masry), a string instrument with a wonderfully hollow woody resonance. The former is lyrical and exploratory, the latter foreboding and mordant.Endless variation on the same phrase treats us to bursts of grinding staccato riffing and tremulous, quivering accents. The final twenty minutes, joined by stacks of throbbing percussion, are very loud and swing like crazy.Serious afterglow.
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