EL KHAT

Saadia Jefferson BATOV

8/10

Garage-rock investigation of Yemeni Jewish music

Based in Tel Aviv, cellist, singer and composer Eyal El Wahab is a Yemeni Jew, one of the ancient Jewish communities that once survived throughout the Middle East. El Khat sees Eyal joyously mixing authentic Arabic musical tropes with ethnomusicological forgeries, using junkyard instruments, vintage organs and fuzz-rock guitars. There are nods to other global sounds: the heavily syncopated percussion on the infectiously catchy “Balagh Al Achbaab” is reminiscent of Moroccan gnawa and Tinariwen-style desert rock; the deep funk grooves of “Ya Raiyat” and “Ala Jina Nuhayiykum”