Tag: Tunefork

(2011 end-of-year lists) – FADI TABBAL

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I asked some of my favorite musicians from Beirut and beyond, to tell me what their favorite records of 2011 were…

Fadi Tabbal: producer, sound engineer, musician (The Incompetents, Under The Carpet, XEFM, Robert Polson)

– Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972
– Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
– Bon Iver: Self-titled
– Destroyer: Kaputt
– James Blake: Self-titled
– M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
– Tom Waits: Bad As Me
– The Weeknd: House Of Balloons
– Wilco: The Whole Love
– WU LYF: Go Tell Fire To The Mountain
and of course,
– The Beach Boys: The Smile Sessions (boxset)

THE INCOMPETENTS // 2nd Ruptured Session // 17 Oct 2011

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With a new album (almost) in hand, two concerts scheduled for late October and early November 2011, and another full-blown album in the works, it was high time that The Incompetents (Serge Yared & Fadi Tabbal) took over the studios of Radio Lebanon for the second time, with their ranting, raving, on-air arguments, and of course, some pretty competent music playing!

Listen:
Incompetents (part 1) + Incompetents (part 2)

Track listing:
The Incompetents LIVE *Disposable Valentine
The Incompetents LIVE *Cannibal Blues
The Incompetents LIVE *This Gun’s for Hire
The Incompetents LIVE *Prelude To An Abyss
The Incompetents (Daniel Johnston cover)
The Incompetents (Tom Waits cover)
The Incompetents LIVE *Closing Time
The Incompetents LIVE *Cannibal Blues (bis, because the first take did not work out so well!)
The Incompetents LIVE *After Hours (Velvet Underground cover)
The Incompetents (feat. Wissam Charaf)

[Photos by Tanya Traboulsi & Ghalas Charara]

SANDMOON // Ruptured Session // 5 Nov 2010

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Singer/songwriter Sandra Arslanian, aka SANDMOON, was the guest of Ruptures to present the release of her first album, RAW. Accompanied by guitarist Elia Monsef, she performed three excerpts from the album, live inthe studios of Radio Lebanon. Sandmoon was one of the finalists of Radio Liban 96.2FM ‘Nouvelles Musiques’ competition, which took place in 2009 and saw a host of young Lebanese artists sending their demos to Radio Lebanon.

Listen:
Sandmoon 1 + Sandmoon 2

Track listing:
Sandmoon
Syd Matters
Radiohead
Emily Jane White
dEUS
Beth Gibbons
Angus & Julia Stone

Review // Scrambled Eggs // Johnny Kafta’s Kids Menu

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[April 2010]

A few hours ago, I caught myself trying to remember the first time I watched Scrambled Eggs perform live, here in Beirut or elsewhere. I couldn’t. Either my memory has started to fail me, or I’ve seen Charbel & co perform so often, and under so many guises, that the performances have merged into one gigantic, noisy blur in my head. Which makes these CD releases that much more vital, and evidently indispensable.

Both of these albums were released in April 2010, during the 10th edition of Irtijal Festival. They are the product of a new label, equipped with a fabulously sleazy logo (see below), entitled ‘Johnny Kafta’s Kids Menu‘. The records mark an intense bout of activity for Scrambled Eggs (a trio of Charbel Haber -guitar-, Tony Elieh -bass-, and Malek Rizkallah -drums-), beginning towards the end of 2008, and extending early into 2009. The tracks were completed in Fadi Tabbal’s Tunefork Studios.

The first of the CD’s consists of sessions recorded with the ‘A’ Trio (Mazen Kerbaj -trumpet-, Sharif Sehnaoui -guitar-, and Raed Yassin -double bass-), comprising two long tracks, epic, dissonant, and sinuous, and a third, shorter, “rockier” ditty, a tribute of sorts to early Japanese animé “Grendizer”. Interesting to hear Yassin, Kerbaj and Elieh scream Arabic insults over noisy, distorted accompaniment. And highly recommended. Also recommended is local Lebanese producer Diamond Setter‘s remix of the title track, “Beach Party at Mirna el Chalouhi”. You can listen to that one here:

http://soundcloud.com/diamond-setter/scrambled-eggs-a-trio-beach-party-at-mirna-el-chalouhi-diamond-setters-whatever-you-want-rework

The 2nd album, “Scrambled Eggs & Friends”, was recorded with various musicians hailing from Beirut’s (and Paris’) experimental scenes, namely Joe Ghosn (laptop & electronics), Abdallah Ko (guitar & electronics), Stéphane Rives (saxophone), Fadi Tabbal (guitar), as well as the aforementioned Kerbaj and Sehnaoui. Here, Scrambled Eggs indulge in newfound musical directions and tangents, far from the regular rock format, and marrying with grand ease experimentation, improvisation, and noise. I love the stuff. And the visuals too (these are by Mazen Kerbaj). Ya 3akarit.

 

Ruptured Live // The Ruptured Sessions Vol.1 Launch Concert // Walimat Wardeh

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So here it is at last ! The first CD to be recorded in the studios of RADIO LEBANON 96.2FM, during the RUPTURES radio show… Featuring music by the likes of NADINE KHOURI, CHARBEL HABER, YOUMNA SABA, CRISTOBAL, and The INCOMPETENTS… We are releasing the CD, in the presence of the artists, over the course of a unique celebration at our favorite hot-spot, the WALIMAT Restaurant in HAMRA, on APRIL 30, from 5-8pm. There will be wine, food, singing and dancing.

More seriously:
– Acoustic Performances by CRISTOBAL, YOUMNA SABA, and The INCOMPETENTS
– The Projection Premiere of Youmna Saba’s ISMAK, a videoclip by Youmna Habbouche and Joe Elias
– Music by Dj Eject

 

Review // Scrambled Eggs // Dedicated to Foes Celebrating Friends

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[January 2009]

SCRAMBLED EGGS: Dedicated To Foes Celebrating Friends (Incognito, 2009)

Hot on the heels of the haunted soundtrack they’ve created for the Joreige/Hadjithomas film ‘Je Veux Voir’, Lebanese punk icons Scrambled Eggs end their busy year with this “modest” 2-song release, which does however hold a host of surprises.

The year 2008 saw the Eggs part ways with their guitarist, Marc Codsi, an active contributor to the band’s sound since 2001. Codsi’s tumultuous departure, in addition to the wealth of experience gathered from working with various musicians throughout the year, infiltrate the tracks featured here, and lend them a primal, DIY quality. The sophistication of the ‘Je Veux Voir’ soundtrack is eschewed in favor of a raw, abrasive sound, harking back to the punk aesthetic of the ‘Happy Together Filthy Forever’ EP, released in 2006.

The single was recorded with little budget, in lo-fi conditions that seep through the music and lyrics. The band, reduced to the core trio of Haber on guitar and vocals, Elieh on bass, and Rizkallah on drums, displays a frantic desire to land back on its feet after a period of artistic self-doubt, and succeeds in doing so admirably. Of the six or seven songs that the Eggs wrote and tested on the road in September 2008, 2 were selected for this single release, and a third, a furious cover of Abba’s ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, is hidden at the far end of the CD. Also hidden away at the far reaches of this release are a selection of musical snippets and oddities, selected by band-leader Charbel Haber with able help from Tunefork Studio’s maestro Fadi Tabbal.

This basic, back-to-the-roots package is a masterful way to end a difficult year, and an able return to form from one of the most revered band on Beirut’s alternative music scene.

Ziad Nawfal

(2008 end-of-year lists) – FADI TABBAL

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I asked the main actors of this here blog (mostly musicians, of course, but also friends, family, support-givers…) to provide me with a list (5 to 20 albums) of their favorite records of the year.

The results are slowly coming in. There are surprises, resemblances, similarities, incongruous choices… I’ve left the responses intact, exactly as I received them, along with my friends’ comments. So here goes:

Fadi Tabbal: musician (Incompetents), producer, sound engineer, owner of Tunefork Studios in Beirut

 

“The LIST. Pa-Pa-Paaaaa:

It s not in any particular order.”

Deerhunter – Microcastle
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
The Walkmen – You and Me
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes / Sun Giant EP
Portishead – Third
TV on The Radio – Dear Science
Bon Iver – For Emma. For Ever Ago
Sun Kil Moon – April
Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
Spiritualized – Songs in A&E

Brian Wilson – That Lucky Old Sun
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
Sigur Ros – eð suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

“Well, I guess that s it.”