Huffington Post,
Top 10 Global Albums of 2009
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The Spy From Cairo--Secretly Famous (Wonderwheel)
The oud is what sets Zeb's globetronica apart from all others in the Arabic realm. No musician has so perfectly woven traditional oud playing into a digital template. His love of both the folk sound of the Middle East and the folklore of Jamaica, reggae, share such complementary aesthetics that their marriage is a faithful bondage. Returning for his latest under one of his many monikers, The Spy From Cairo, Brooklynite Zeb has concocted his heaviest hitter yet. "Kurdish Delight" is a bass line boasting monster that pays credit to Kingston soundsystems. The opening "Nayphony," a Jajouka style banger, rolls over wooden floors with thunder. "Kembe" is one of the most uplifting club tracks I've heard. And the simple titles of many--"Oud Funk," "Sufi Disco"--clues you in that heavy rides are ahead. The heaviest: "Blood and Honey." This song is the soundtrack of war elephants stampeding prison gates. The bottom edge of the beat sounds like a reprisal of "Cleopatra in NY," but then in trounces forward. It is one of three featuring Tunisian born vocalist Ghalia Bhenali, the album's most surprising and inviting characteristic. The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote under many names to accommodate the many people inside of his head. He used words as his medium for explanation, and grew tortured for the attempt. Greatness is always in the possibility, for it manifests in creative wedges. Secretly Famous is perfectly titled. It's already all there; you just need to open your ears to listen. 12/14/09
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