Ali Hassan Kuban: Sukkar Sukkar Sukkar (1989)

Ali Hassan Kuban droppin’ rhymes.

Yesterday’s Thai Mor Lam groove was gotten through guitar trance induction, today’s trance groove is drum induced. Can you tell I’m diggin’ the crates for some new kind of groove? If, you’ve never heard the insanely funky African music of Egypt’s Godfather of Nubian music Ali Hassan Kuban, consider yourself unlucky. Good for you…today’s your lucky day! Driven by African tar (a single-frame drum) and a multitude of various percussion instruments, Ali intertwined slippery bass heavy melodies with the Nubian speedy polyrhythmic tradition of older Egyptian music to create something akin to sung Afro-drum and bass music.

The base for his type of music was always those manic drums, around them he could introduce horns, bagpipes, electric ouds and bass, synths and tons more stuff, then on top of all that his surging call and response vocal delivery. Its a sound that many Egyptians at first were appalled to hear modernized, but one they grew to love for its undeniable dance qualities. All his music, much like Omar Souleyman’s, were popular at weddings for a reason. Hardly anyone out there keeps making stuff as askewdly funky as him, and for such a long time! (he was around 70 years old at the time of these recordings) check out the following tracks for a taste…

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Listen to Sukkar Sukkar Sukkar at Grooveshark.

How about the bagpipe driven Afro-Trance Funk of Koma Wo Beda?

Listen to Koma Wo Beda at Grooveshark.

Further Listening:
– 1989: From Nubia to Cairo
– 1991: Walk Like a Nubian
– 2001: Real Nubian