Reviewed by Omar Fadel

Mounqaliba, the new recording from Natacha Atlas
I feel it important to start off this review by saying that I really enjoyed some of Natacha Atlas' earlier work with Halim and Something Dangerous being my favorites. Ya, there was always an orientalist vibe going on but the "cool" factor in the composition and production always overshadowed any shortcomings. So, in short, I am a fan.

Moving forward.

On first listen it would seem as though Natacha Atlas' latest release, Mounqaliba, is a concept album...which begs the question, what is the concept?

Reviewed by Jordan Elgrably

Natacha Atlas: live at the Skirball July 29, 2010In a mellifluous voice that was at once deep, soft, beautiful and strong, former Transglobal Underground vocalist Natacha Atlas brought her east-west repertoire back to Los Angeles on July 29. The cross-over artist performed in a free open-air concert at the Skirball Center that was supported by the L.A. County Arts Commission and the city's Department of Cultural Affairs. A star in parts of Europe and the Middle East, Natacha Atlas has a smaller following Stateside but certainly merits a broader audience, both among those who love world music and fusion, and others with a passion for female vocalists.

David ShashaBy David Shasha

Recently I was shopping at my favorite record store, Academy CDs in Manhattan, and purchased two CDs: one by the great African-American singer and activist Billie Holiday, the other by the legendary Egyptian singer Um Kulthum.

Um Kulthum
While many Americans will immediately recognize Billie Holiday, whose harrowing "Strange Fruit" described the lynching of blacks in the Jim Crow South and became a central part of the Civil Rights struggle, few Americans are familiar with the music of the greatest singer the modern Arab world has known.

In "Homage to a Belly-Dancer," an essay honoring the famous Egyptian belly dancer Tahia Carioca, Edward Said begins with a discussion of Um Kulthum that places her work in the proper perspective:

The greatest and most famous singer of the twentieth-century Arab world was Um Kalthoum, whose records and cassettes, fifteen years after her death, are available everywhere. A fair number of non-Arabs know about her too, partly because of the hypnotic and melancholy effect of her singing, partly because in the world-wide rediscovery of authentic people's art Um Kalthoum is a dominant figure. But she also played a significant role in the emerging Third World women's movement as a pious 'Nightingale of the East' whose public exposure was as a model not only of feminine consciousness but also of domestic propriety.

By Daiana Feuer, LA Weekly

Ariana Delawari channels the ghost of Janis Joplin
Ariana Delawari sn't your typical California girl singing folk-pop about lovers and the cosmos, though you'll find some of that on her debut album, Lions of Panjshir. A grand purpose entered her life before she was born: Just 20 days prior to Delawari's birth, her father's entire family fled Afghanistan for Los Angeles. The Soviet Union had invaded, initiating what took on the redolent nickname "Soviet Vietnam." Her father's raison d'être became Afghanistan: demonstrations, meetings at the house with mujahideen members, trips to Congress and establishing peace organizations. When the U.S. helped to push out the Taliban in 2001, her parents returned to rebuild the country. Dad helped institute a banking system, and Mom—who speaks six languages—worked for the United Nations.

By Mischa Geracoulis

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From Mark LeVine, author of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam