NO Blues - Oh Yeah Habibi - 2015

If we look for the word "arabicana", we will find a genre and its inventors: NO Blues, a unique mix of American musical culture (folk, blues and country) and Arabic music. Even after ten years as a band, it remains unique in the world. In the new album Oh Yeah Habibi, NO Blues builds a bridge between East and West navigating the Nile and the Mississippi and its musical deltas.

In 2004 Rob Kramer - artistic director of productiehuis Oost-Nederland - invited three virtuosos of the strings for a three-day session that resulted in a joint concert. The spontaneously developed synergy between Anne-Maarten van Heuvelen (bass), Ad van Meurs (guitar) and Haytham Safia (u'd - Arabic lute) led to hundreds of shows and four albums such as NO Blues, with his debut being Farewell Shalabiye (2005) an immediate success. In 2007 NO Blues became a quintet with the incorporation of percussionist Osama Maleegi and vocalist and producer Ankie Keultjes. Since then, they have conquered their music lovers in France, Greece, Mexico and Arab countries with Ya Dunya (2007), Hela Hela (2011) and Kind of NO Blues (2013). With Oh Yeah Habibi (2015) the band continues its musical journey. Ten years of its unique Arabicana mix!

Oh Yeah Habibi sounds direct and fresh like a debut album. The oud performer Haytham Safia points out that they have returned to the essence of the guitar, oud, bass and percussion. Unlike previous albums, in NO Blues they have decided to use current events as themes of their songs. Topics such as "Exodus" and "The World" revolve around the refugee drama, and "Two Trains" and "Gods Move" refer to religious clashes. "We were struck that our music seemed to have a different energy after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo," says bassist Anne-Maarten van Heuvelen. Guitarist Ad van Meurs points out: "We have never been a band with political content, but we definitely can't look the other way either."

Oh Yeah Habibi goes beyond the previous theme of NO Blues, and his critically acclaimed "Arab" still has great impact and surprise. In this new work of twelve tracks up one more level in his musical embrace between east and west.

Tracks list:

01. Into The Caravan

02. Imta

03. Doubt

04. Two Trains

05. Ehsas

06. Exodus

07. The World Keeps Turning

08. Sudani

09. Oh Yeah Habibi

10. The Moment

11. Osama Blues

12. Gods Move