CD Review: The Beats of 'Halalwood'

U-cef
Halalwood
Crammed

The funky, electronic beats and ethnic infusions of U-cef's Moroccan homeland creates a truly modern form of musical expression. Ten tracks and dozens of musicians from the UK, Morocco, France, Egypt, and Tunisia accompany and comprise the album's musical backbone. The innovative electronic beats and vocals by Natacha Atlas (Egypt), Rachid Taha (Algeria), and others, create something engaging and classic. There is a fine balance between rai, rap, spoken-word, electronica, gnawa, and Arabic trance music throughout all of the tracks. Halalwood is bound to draw in younger crowds, because of its close association with Western beats and arrangments. It's easy to use the term 'fusion' for U-cef's music. In essence, U-cef's vision for the music is very clearly and intelligently defined. Halalwood not only contains sporadic female vocals, hip beats, and male vocals, but it also embraces a new musical and cultural movement, as Hollywood and Bollywood have done before. This is contemporary Moroccan music for the world to enjoy! ~ Matthew Forss