Claude Challe Presents

CD IS IN MINT CONDITION

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Lebanese disco? Well, stranger things have been hits. Certainly, the three Beirut DJs behind the eponymous R.E.G. Project--Ralph Khoury, Elie Barbar, and Guy Manoukian--couldn't get a better introduction onto the international scene than at the hands of Paris DJ-cum-haberdasher-cum-restaurateur-cum-record-mogul Claude Challe. Challe's hipster cred will doubtless boost R.E.G.'s chances of success in Europe. R.E.G. Project's frenzied sound--a plainly hedonistic mix of Arabic swirls and wind instruments and thumping, percussive beats--arrives at the intersection where East meets West: indebted to both but faithful to neither. But things don't start out that way. Opening tracks "Free At Last" and "Lost Love" unfurl slowly and ambiently, as if reserving energy for the metered cacophony yet to come. By the first version of "Harem" (it appears twice) we're on a dance floor halfway between North Africa and the Middle East. Whether consciously or not, the R.E.G. Project conjures the ghost of Germany's phenomenal pan-African combo who, like the best fusionists, also follow the map of the heart, not the head. --Kim Hughes

1Free At Last
2Lost Love
3Harem
4Peace
5Sayat Nova
6Casa Del Sol
7Zay Al Hawa
8Batwannis Beek
9Piece Of Heaven
10Harem
11Passion