Track Listing

1. Chicky
2. Fantasy
3. Urban Dervish
4. Desert Fish
5. Sitare
6. Vuslat
7. Azize
8. Istanboogie
9. Esrar
10. Zenne
11. Boomzaza
12. Boda
13. Palas
14. Tin Tin
15. Neyzen

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205068 in Music
• Released on: 2004-05-31
• Number of discs: 1

fRoots, June 2002
Oojami provide the "sound of Green Lanes", the long stretch of road that's home to all things Turkish in London. Oojami is the alias of Necmi Cavli, the man behind the mini festival come Eastern bazaar that is the Hubble Bubble club, and an all round explorer of East meets West musical experimentation. He's been performing live as Oojami (with a group of musicians, plus a bellydancer) for quite a while now and at last we have this debut album. The "bellydancing breakbeats" on offer are dark and trippy, well-suited to the brooding Turkish scales and samples they're matched with. The mood and beats are the thing here. Voices, strings, bleeps and samples echo in and out over ominous basslines and percussion (both electronic and acoustic). Proving himself a true multi-culturalist, Calvi has invited Anglo-Indian song queen Najma Akhtar to add vocals to "Sitare". Tracks like "Fantasy", "Boomzaza" and "Vuslat" are dense and addictive. Like fellow Londoners Zohar and MoMo, Oojami have their own urban take on tradition and have released a debut album of real promise. --Jamie Renton

© fRoots Magazine all rights reserved

CD Description
Traditional Arab instruments and melodies joyfully merge with modern electronic dance rhythms in Oojami's debut album, BELLYDANCING BREAKBEATS. This union of Turkish, Asian, and African elements with urban dance beats results in an infectious and exotic energy that respectfully acknowledges tradition, but pushes gleefully beyond it. The proficient musiciansof Oojami can take credit for the popularity of this eclectic sonic banquet.

Customer Reviews

A change is as good as a rest
I wasn't sure what to really expect with this CD, but I enjoy ethnic and modern urban sounds, so thought I'd give it a spin.

Sometimes such almalgams of genres fail, flounder or only rarely delight - Oojami's Bellydancing Breakbeats sets out from the start to grab you and pull you into dreamy yet sometimes harsh otherworld. I could ramble all day about the complexities, but would probably embarrass myself as my knowledge of Eastern sounds is pretty rudimentary. Suffice to say, this is an excellent album to drag you into something slightly familiar, but different. The more you play it, the better it becomes. Full of eastern promise as they say.

Top marks! If you're looking for something not yet bursting into the mainstream but want to be ahead of the pack when it does, here it is. Hits the marks on every track, something the Arabesque compilations (also a very worthwhile purchase) don't quite do.

Techno meets whirling dervishes
With the state of the UK dance, rock and pop scenes having stagnated over the last few years i've since got into the new wave of 'global' beats, the first being the likes of Transglobal Underground, Loop Guru etc. Together with the 'Big drum small world' by the Dhol Foundation, 'Bellydancing breakbeats' is the best 'global' fusion CD out there at the moment. It kicks off in a big way with 'Chicky', possibly the best track. The pace varies with some nice laid back grooves as well as the technofied whirling dervish tracks. I recommend this to anyone bored with a moribund mainstream dance scene characterised by formulaic garage, r'n'b and trance.

Wow.
Nothing this vital has come down the pike in awhile -

Bellydancing Breakbeats - (or is it Istanboogie? There are two differently titled albums out there right now by Oojami with the same list of tracks.) - grabs you with its first cut - Chicky - and pulls you in. It's dance music with a refreshing lack of attitude, a synthesis of middle-eastern melody and harmony, techno beats, DJ sampling, and traditional Turkish instrumentation.

You'd think that with a combination of these elements, the overall sound might become forced. It never does. It's hypnotic and dreamy, welcoming but tinged with dark, and seems to reveal new colors with each listening.

Breakbeats also manages something rare - every track makes a distinct statement, and does it decisively. It's like a party thrown by a master entertainer: inclusive, exciting, different, and rewarding to the listener. When was the last time you could call a dance track "rewarding"?