Singer and multi-instrumentalist Zee Karkabi believes in simplicity and you can hear that on his new EP, a set of five honest and perfectly produced pop/rock songs that sound both classic and fresh.
♪♫ Listen: “Reanimation” + album stream
A collection of heartfelt pop/rock songs, Adonis’ latest album “Nour” will delight admirers of good melodies and emotional climaxes, mixed with lighter and brighter tracks like “Leli Ya Lel”.
♪♫ Listen: “La Bel Haki” + album stream
Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” came out 40 years too early, because Loopstache’s new album “Hypercube” would be a perfect soundtrack to this cosmic story. Hypermusic it is.
♪♫ Listen: “All I Need Is You”
Somewhere between electro pop, funk and rock’n’roll, Gizzmo are carving out some room for themselves in what can only be called gizzmo music. “System Failure” is both entertaining and intriguing.
♪♫ Listen: “Naked Sheep” + album stream
Gizzmo on Facebook.
This is a re-release of Fadi Tabbal’s second solo album, which he originally self-released in 2015, but now it comes back to the vinyl record stores and streaming services in a proper shape. Experimental music ranging from ambient to psychedelia with a very strong aura.
♪♫ Listen: “Crystal Palace” + album stream
Fadi Tabbal on Soundcloud, www.
Singer-songwriter Youmna Saba’s music has always combined Arabic, expertimental, and contemporary influences, leaving behind any strict categories. On the three-track album “Arb‘een (40)”, she gives up typical song structures completely, taking oud, guitar and voice on a trip to unknown. The result is stunning.
♪♫ Listen: “40-2” + album stream
Youmna Saba on Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, www.
Recorded live on a reel to reel tape – “a recording process that has not occurred in Lebanon for the last decade” – Kinematik’s new album is a celebration of 70s rock music in all its instrumental variety, filtered through the more recent discoveries in the genre. Psychedelia at its truest.
♪♫ Listen: “Lalochezia” + album stream
Beirut-based indie quintet Filter Happier appeared last year on our list with their previous EP, and here comes another one – as mesmerizing, beautifully written, performed and produced. Obligatory listen for all indie- and post-rock fans.
♪♫ Listen: “Settle Down” + album stream
Filter Happier on Soundcloud, Facebook.
Yasmine Hamdan gives us much more than just “modern Arabic pop” on her new album “Al Jamilat”. Among these 11 tracks, you’ll find some of the most beautifully-written songs arranged for piano, strings and even hang drum, which team up with ambient-ish textures to highlight Yasmine’s outstanding vocals.
♪♫ Listen: “ La Ba’den” + album stream
It’s the first album from the singer-songwriter Alko B, but you might already know him from the a slightly more electrified duo Loopstache or the rock collective The Wanton Bishops, who appeared on our 2016 list. As the title aptly suggests, “Sex Tapes” was created and recorded in his bedroom.
♪♫ Listen: “Coffee & Cigarettes” + album stream
Mixing songwriting with all kinds of guitar experiments, steady rhythms and 80s aura, The Bunny Tylers come not only for your ears but mind and heart as well, since behind all that cold sound layers there’s something very emotional at the bottom – just like with My Bloody Valentine or even krautrock. Be warned.
♪♫ Listen: “It Seems It All Disappears” + album stream
The Bunny Tylers on Facebook, Soundcloud, www.
Over the half-decade since they formed and three EPs they’ve released over those years, the dream-pop quartet Postcards earned the name of one of Lebanon’s most intriguing and promising projects. The promise is fulfilled in their long-awaited and even more captivating first full-length album, “I’ll be here in the morning”. From all the valuable elements of alternative pop / indie rock, they create their very own jigsaw puzzle.
♪♫ Listen: “Bright Lights” + album stream
Postcards on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud.