Search - Sayed Balaha :: Devil & the Dancer

Excellent mixture of dancing and background music

Shantell Powell | Kitchener, ON, Canada | 07/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had never heard of Sayed Balaha before yesterday, but I was won over by the time I heard the second track. The Devil and the Dancer album is primarily composed of dumbek drumming. It's amazing how versatile a simple drum can become in the capable hands of an expert percussionist. A lot of thought went into these intricate rhythms. A violent shimmy may stop suddenly and carefully-placed silence will take over for a measure before Japanese-sounding drums take over and build to crescendo.The nine-minute title track is especially provocative. When I listen to it, I can imagine an intricate choreography for two dancers. It's the belly dance version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"; instead of duelling fiddles, we have duelling hips.This isn't the standard drum solo kind of stuff I'm used to, especially when the Japanese elements come into play. Although the dumbek is the primary instrument, occasionally, other instrumentation is added. I hear high hats, zilling, and sometimes, what sounds like someone using their hand across their mouth as percussion. The rhythms are unusual, too. In "Cocktail," I hear a samba.This music just screams for interpretive dancing. I wouldn't recommend this for beginning dancers, but if you're a more advanced dancer and would like a real challenge, try working out a routine to one of these songs. Even if you're not a dancer, these tracks are excellent as background music."