Saracen

Jef Stott – Saracen
Reviewed by Sadie O., 7/1/08
Middle Eastern meets electronica in dub. Local artist and guests. Mostly very moody and dark and mysterious, in a good way. Pieces go through a lot of changes and involve a lot of musical elements. Compares very favorably to Cheb-I-Sabbah. Everything is gorgeous and involves interesting combinations. Excellent!
FCCs – nothing in English, doubtful anyway. I like 5 and 6 best.
1. ***strong midtempo electronic dance beat that turns into belly dance beat with the addition of hand drums. Low register instrumentation, great sound.
2. ***random Arabic vocals and percussion, a bit of downtempo groove, then midtempo traditional sound with a reggae back beat.
3. *glitch intro, then very dark chords. Dance beat, but very somber feel.
4. **DARK chord, and very odd, breathy flute. Unique, warbly but low vocals.
5. ****uptempo oud and handdrums, funky electronics, guest vocals by MC Rai. Killer stuff!
6. ****electronics, a bit of darkness and menace, then seriously funky beat (and darkness and menace.)
7. ***electronic drones, percussion slowly added in, midtempo belly dance beat, continuing to… evolve. More vocals by MC Rai – really quite gorgeous. LONG fade.
8. **extremely soft electronic intro, then louder but still rather formless for first minute. Swingy syncopated beat, lyricless vocals. Adds elements and gets prettier as it goes along.
9. **fairly dramatic intro, electronic squeepy beat, very “jungle” with just overlaid elements of Arabic instrumentation.
10. ***soft and somber intro, then bits of instruments and vocals cobbled together, dub beat and production. Very subdued, but very cool. Long fade.