V1 Arabica: A North African Vo [Audio CD] Various

Chillout label Bar De Lune bring us Arabica, the latest of their ultra-stylised compilations such as Buddha Beats and Krishna Beats. The sound is pretty much North African fusion or traditional Arabian/African vocals, instrumentation and musicianship, fused with a more Europeanised electronic sound and style. An approach which on paper looks promising, but which in reality fails to deliver much else than bland, cliché riddled predictability. So, as the likes of Nickodemus, Digital Bled, Zohar, Dzihan and Kamien and Omar Tekbilek attempt to save the day with some useful examples of organic world-music fused within a framework of machined downbeat, hip-hop, techno and house, the rest of them get left behind in world of unadventurous tameness, where style unfortunately wins hands down over content. --Found Sounds