Natacha Atlas & the Nazeeka Ensemble
(World Village)
When Magreb-rooted, Belgian-born Natacha Atlas first shimmied into the British music scene, it was as the belly dancer and occasional singer with Transglobal Underground. Some 15 years later, TU's "ethno-techno" is largely forgotten, and Atlas has dumped the techno. Although recorded in London, her seventh album is her most traditional foray into Arab music -- even more so than 2001's made-in-Cairo Ayeshteni.
Ana Hina is constructed largely from the songbooks of Lebanon's Fairuz and Egypt's Abdel Halim Hafez, whose "Beny Ou Benak Eih" is an ideal showcase for Atlas's bird-like vocals. The Nazeeka Ensemble provides a full complement of Western and Arab instruments, but the pirouetting strings are central, as they are in most Egyptian pop. The title song, one of four originals co-written by the singer and producer-arranger Harvey Brough, shows that Atlas is more than a deft copyist.
This album doesn't mix things up as radically as most Atlas set, although two of its asides are jarring. "La Vida Callada," a Spanish-language duet, is overly theatrical, while a version of "Black is the Colour," a Scottish folk tune, hews too closely to Nina Simone's. Far better is a remake of Atlas's own "Hayati Inta Reprise (Hayatak Ana)," now endowed with a sauntering bass line and a bluesy accordion. There's nothing here for ultra-BPM fans, but Ana Hina knows how to groove as well as whirl.
Standout Tracks: "Beny Ou Benak Eih," "Hayati Inta Reprise (Hayatak Ana)" MARK JENKINS
