فيروز فيروز
تراتيل الميلاد = Christmas Hymns

American singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst are two accomplished musicians in their own right, with the latter largely known for his role in Bright Eyes and other bands, with an enviable solo discography too, while the former, after a slew of singles, released her debut album Stranger In The Alps in 2017. Together the pair form Better Oblivion Community Center, who recently scored some airtime on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with a beaty rendition of their dust-kicking vocal number "Dylan Thomas". The album delivers a bevy of duets and folk-tales with references to '90s pop rock and grunge never that far off, and it's best heard on "Dominos" and the cutesy synth-play of " Exception To The Rule".

When it comes to offering up re-mastered reissues of obscure Lebanese music, Wewantsounds has previous form. They've already delivered a new edition of Ziad Rahbani's "Abu Ali" LP and here serve up a fresh pressing of an album he produced: "Wahdon", a hard-to-find 1978 set by her mother, legendary Middle Eastern chanteuse Fairuz. It's a set of stark contrasts. While the A-side tracks indulge the more traditional side of Fairuz's output -think Lebanese vocals and instrumentation in the style of pop music from the region made in the period - the flipside cuts see her taking calculated risks. "Al Bosta" is a funk, soul and disco influenced club cut of the highest order, while "Wahdon" is a sumptuously symphonic soul slow jam straight from the top drawer.

Some little scratches but an essential highlife record...

Cumbia, Latin … This second round of retrievals is more of a selectors’ affair: less reverent, more free-flowing, with more twists and turns. There is no let-up in musical quality, maintaining the same judicious, heart-piercing balance between emotional desolation and dignified endurance, the same bitter-sweet play between affective excess and musical sublimity.

Marthe Zambo - Sili Ma Mongo - 1983 Cameroon Afro disco Pop Soukous music