with a reworked

sound; Grievous
Angels speak our souls
Yalia — Hitlist Egypt, Island
Records 1990

For better or for worse, the
pervasive power of Western pop
music has changed the global
soundscape.

In Egypt, where more than half
of the country’s population of 60
million is under 25 years of age,
the imperative for a youth gen-
eration to have a music of its
own has resulted in an explosive
creativity. Egypt is the centre of
the recording industry for the
Arab Middle East. This compila-
tion scratches the surface to in-
troduce two evolving streams of
Egyptian pop — “‘al jeel’’ and
“shaabi.”’

Al jeel takes Bedouin, Nubian
and Egyptian music traditions
and hitches them to dance-
oriented electronics. Think of it
as the nightclub soundtrack for
the Cairo cool.

Shaabi, meanwhile, travels in
more tightly traditional circles,
carrying the same cachet in the
Arab world that folk-blues do in
North America.

Both styles offer intoxicating
rhythms, working on the
backbone much like Algerian Rai
music. Top of the hitlist here: Effi
Shatr Enhaa Tgannen by Sami Ali
and Sahar Hamdy; Fi Yaani by
Amr Diab and Besma by Hanan;
the woman’s clarion voice fires
up a wild dance track.

F GYPT EXPLODES

MICHAEL |
BECKER

record review

Grievous Angels —- One Job
Town, Stony Plain Records,
1990

This unrecognized gem of a
release must surely be the most
authentic piece of Canadian
music to be released iast year.

tn the vein of Cowboy Junkies,
yet without the somnolent
delivery, Grievous Angels (what
a name, what a concept) travel
Stompin Tom’s Trans-Canada
road, but from a more personal
perspeciive of the heart.

Lead singer Michelle Rumball’s
heartbreak vibrato voice powers
a consistent batch of well-written
cauniry tunes. And the gritty
romanticism is quintessentially
Canuck: 8.C. In The Winter-
Time, Kapuskasing Highway
Song and Gordie And My Old
Man: “Gordie and my old man
on a Saturday night watching the
Blackhawks and getting tight.”

The best line of the bunch
comes from Cecile in The Ballad
Of Leonard and Cecile: ‘‘Let’s
leave the scrub-brush land and
head to the city where they un-
derstand what it’s like to be free.

I'm tired of living out my dreams!

on cable T.V.””

16 Your
Good Health!

ce

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developed a nasty dose of the flu, the Care Centre at
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nine days of wonderful care and attention | was able to return
10 enjoy my suite. What a comfort it is to know that a helping
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end a personal tour.

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ARACHLATY OFLRTED BY DEEP RSICUIRE INCORPORATED

Wednesday, January 16, 1991 - North Shore News - 24

An offer you should refuse

marketing ploys of recent

years, Godfather author
Mario Puzo’s latest novel
has been released to coin-
cide with the third instal-
ment of the continuing
cinematic saga of the Cor-
leone dynasty’s deadly
double-dealing.

But fet me tell you, The Fourth
K (Random House; 479 pp.:
$28.95) is one offer you can and
should refuse.

Anyone whose gat finger is fairly
itching at the prospect of a new
Sicilian gangster sequel will be
disappointed to hear that The
Fourth K has absolutely nothing to
do with organized crime — unless
you describe lousy writing, a fee-
bie plot and mercenary exploita-
tion as such.

Don't believe me? Well, hold on
to your seats (and your $28.95,
GST not included) and let's ex-
plore the story line together...

A terrorist group has
assassinated the Pope while their
colluding compatriots are busy hi-
jacking a jetliner bearing the
daughter of the president of the

THE

N ONE of the shrewdest

MIKE
STEELE pt

book review

United States.

The daughter's name is Theresa
(daughter, not Mother), Theresa
Kennedy. That's right, folks, her
doting dad is none other than
President Francis Xavier Kennedy,
kin to the late Robert and JFK.

The First Daughter is spirited
away to the fictional Arab country
of Sherhaben whose perfidious
leader is a closet supporter of the
terrorist mastermind behind this
despicable kidnapping, the Angel
of Death — Yabril to his oi!-rich
friends.

In short order the jetsetting
Theresa is publicly executed, a
pair of idealistic American physics
professors plant an atomic bomb
in a New York bus terminal, a
disturbed drifter gears up to gun
down the Prez (only obvious for

SALE *

the last 400 pages or so) and a
semi-secret band of buccanecring
billionaires plans a bit of White
House-cleaniag — starting with
the current tenant.

Hear that high-pitched twang in
the background? It’s the sound
credibility makes when it’s stret-
ched to the breaking point.

Weaknesses in this story pop up
faster than targets in an amuse-
ment arcade.

Puzo expects us to embrace
such plot ingredients as the presi-
dent allowing the nuclear device
in Times Square to explode to fur-
ther his political aims and a White
House decision to wipe out one of
Sherhaben’s principal cities to
teach those nasty, fundamentalist
fanatics a lesson they’/l never
forget. (OK, I'll concede that the
latter isn’t that unbelievable.)

tn all fairness to the author,
though, the deficiencies of The
Fourth K could be eliminated in
the inevitable paperback edition
through the simple expedient of
careful editing.

At the risk of seeming immodest,
I'd suggest merely cutting the first
479 pages to effect a vast im-
provement in the whole.

Roy al City Antiques :

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