Roots of the Middle East & North Africa | MC Magazine

Exotic percussion grooves from the east have invaded almost every form of popular music, ranging from drum'n bass to neo-metal. Check out Bill Laswell's Tabla Beat Science featuring Talvin Singh, Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan, and Trilok Gurtu for a taste of how exotic percussion can shake the house. Discs like Roots of the Middle East and North Africa make it easy to add these flavors to your own tunes. This disc contains a wide range of tempos and intensities - some are destined for sleep-inducing trance tracks, while others would be perfect fuel for pounding techno-metal.

The percussion ensemble plays 41 patterns, then each instrument gets a chance to groove on it alone. The last four tracks contain individual hits for even more creative editing. The tracks here aren't super-crisp sounding, but were very easy to cut up and loop once I droped them into Pro Tools. Don't know the difference between a Maksoum Sudasi and a Sayidi Nakess? This disc will not only be a valuable addition to your sound library but will school your sorry ass as well.