Orquestra Arab De Barcelona - Maktub

`Maktub' by Orquestra Arab De Barcelona has been out for a few months, but I have just stumbled this album and and I'm glad that I did, for it is very enjoyable and well worth a punt.

As made quite clear by the name of the band, they are indeed an arab music-orientated band based in Barcelona, with musicians made up of players from Morocco, Catalonia and Greece with a rich mixture of violin, oud and piano dominating the sound. Stand out tracks for me are `El Viaje De La Verdad', `Sufi'. `Gloria A TI' and `Mi Tierra'. For sound clips check here.

The sound is never boring, fusing mainly arab musical and vocal influences with a mizture subtle Catalan and Spanish styles, as well as jazz flavours, but on the whole sticking to the roots

Here are two clips of the band in action live.

Killing Joke - Love Like Blood

I was never really a fan of Killing Joke to any real extent, but the superb single `Love Like Blood' made a huge impact with me when it was released in 1985.

Killing Joke were fronted by the charismatic and scary looking Jaz Coleman who has had a very interesting career, not only in the music business, but within literature and as an environmental campaigner . Folk who only associate Mr Coleman with Killing Joke should do well to read here.

This is a clip `Love Like Blood' from the Channel 4 show The Tube circa 1985.