Sam Shalabi

Recorded live in Montreal, this essential 10” vinyl split from Carbon Records/The Annex Blues Society offers two exhilarating, distinct sides. Side A features Sam Shalabi’s intricate, fast-paced solo oud improvisation, blending melody with technical mastery. On the flip, Liam Grant and Mike Gangloff deliver a crisp, energetic duo performance of “Salmon Tails up the River,” transforming Grant’s original solo guitar piece with intuition and drive.

On The Dwarfs Of East Agouza’s “Sasquatch Landslide”, there are instrumental wails and squalls, bits of melody careen into the middle distance, an electronic soup bubbles away, and a thick buzz underpins everything. While it sounds like it could be messy, it’s not; it’s more like the semi-organised bustle of a busy souk, with its tension between chaos and order, where every sound has its meaning and its place.

Cairo’s The Dwarfs Of East Agouza join Constellation Records for their new album, Sasquatch Landslide, out early October. Maurice Louca, Alan Bishop, and Sam Shalabi expand their telekinetic fusion of North African rhythm, free jazz, and psychedelic groove. New single, “Neptune Anteater,” offers a captivating preview of their kinetic trance sound.