Marzipan - Charif Megarbane (2023)

Habibi Funk is one of the many great reissue labels. Their usual work is surfacing lost music from the middle east. This outing, however, is a new record from Beirut-based Megarbane. His bio says he’s self-released over 100 records, and if this one is any indication I’ll have to check some more out.

I always resist the label “world” music because it sounds so essentialist and colonialist, but I don’t really have any idea what else to call this. Smooth mid-century Euro-film-style music, along with hip hop, arabic music, and modern bass culture.