Ruby : Classical Egyptian Bellydance

ARC's master of Middle Eastern music, Hossam Ramzy, has explored throughout the realm of near-Oriental dance music over the years, touching on rai, Egyptian dance, belly dance proper, classical music, and more. Here, he attempts to fuse the grandeur of Egyptian popular dance music from the '70s and '80s with modern belly dance aesthetics in a mode specifically suited for dancers to use as accompaniment. The result is a surprisingly rai-heavy album. While the modes don't all hail from rai proper (and rai itself hails from Algeria), the era of Egyptian music lying at the core was the first to make heavy use of synthesizers and larger string sections in a dramatic way. That drama -- along with the instrumentation -- leads to a particular genre sound. The occasional bandoneon riffs just serve to differentiate the music from the bulk of contemporary belly dance music. The album rolls, it bounces, it shimmies reliably. It may not be a huge departure from other collections by Ramzy (or indeed, his partner in crime, Egyptian mega-producer Ossama El Hendy), but that could serve as evidence that Ramzy is most definitely onto something with his compositions -- sheer danceability. ~ Adam Greenberg|