Various Artists / Bellylicious
Album: Bellylicious   Collection:World
Artist:Various Artists   Added:Dec 2003
Label:Shakti  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2004-03-01 Pull Date: 2004-05-03 Charts: Reggae/World
Week Ending: May 9 Apr 4 Mar 28 Mar 21 Mar 14 Mar 7
Airplays: 1 1 1 1 2 2

Recent Airplay
1. Dec 23, 2009: Getting Over ... the Hump!
Seeking Advice From the Expt
4. Mar 30, 2004: Sunshine ... in the Afternoon
Inta Omri
2. Nov 22, 2006: Morning Glory
Roots Beat
5. Mar 27, 2004: Morning Glory
Seeking Advice From the Expt
3. May 03, 2004: the boss plays funky beats
Peace
6. Mar 20, 2004: Morning Glory
Roots Beat

Album Review
Manoneet
Reviewed 2004-02-09
A compilation of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Indian flavors of catchy dance music with a bellydance theme, Bellylicious is an ambitious album. Well-known bands such as The Dhol Foundation, Thievery Corporation, The R.E.G. Project, Spiritual Brothers, and Saed Mrad lead the integration of Arab and traditional middle-eastern/Indians melodies, rhythms, and textures into a modern electronic breakbeat. Unfortunately, a few of the songs are so amped up with the driving bass that they nearly end up losing their exotic flavor. Overall catchy with great production values.

Track 1, Seeking advice…: Starts with plain percussion; then sitar riffs, distorted chanting/wailing, and sax join in for good measure. Strong techno beat. Tempo and tension rise as the track progresses.

**Track 2, Inta Omri: Shakers, followed by drumming on different types of surfaces. Disco-ish beat. Very Middle eastern sound. Nice!

Track 3, Sawah: Traditional middle eastern percussion, drowned out by annoyingly thumpy beat last heard on the dance floors of the 90s.

Track 4, Kariat: Similar to #3.

Track 5, Peace: Raw, almost tribal beat. Tempo reduces with the riffs of a stringed instrument at 1:00, then picks up again at 2:00.

Track 6, Roots beat: Think intro to a James Bond flick. Female vox going “papapa” to dramatic, mysterious music. Cheesy in a cool sort of way. Very heavy percussion.

Track 7, Higher ground: Techno beats, intermittent male wailing in the background.

**Track 9, Reflex: Dripping water and clanking of cymbals. Later, flute and sax join in.

Track 10, Chicky: Middle eastern rhythm with some unimpressive rapping thrown in.

Track 11, Turkish delight: Traditional pipes + drums with campy female vox in English (not to mention moaning and grunting). This one for the strip clubs.

**Track 12, Colors of Panjab: Begins with a beautiful flute refrain plus the tinkering of distant temple bells. Traditional bhangra beats starting at 1:30. Probably the most authentic track on this album (and its not even belly dancing, really).

Track 13, Lagian: More modern sounding bhangra (fused with middle eastern percussion and techno beats). Tame male vox.

**Track 14, Ja vidi: Starts with riffs from some sort of Persian stringed instrument. Great trance/techno music.

Track 15, Indra: Traditional Indian female vox plus percussion starting at 2:00.

Track Listing
 ArtistTrack Name
1. Out of Phase Seeking Advice From the Expt
2. Attieh, Elie Inta Omri
3. 7 Days in Egypt Sawah
4. Mrad, Saed Kariat El Fingan
5. R.E.G. Project, the Peace
6. Beirut Biloma Roots Beat
7. Oryx Higher Ground
8. Spiritual Brothers The Zaar Beats
9. Thunder of the Swords Reflex
10. Oojami Chicky
11. Harem Turkish Delight
12. Dhol Foundation Punjab De Rang
13. Shabaz Lagian
14. Goze, Christophe Ja Vidi
15. Thievery Corporation Indra