V/A ‎/ GIVE ME LOVE / SONGS OF THE BROKENHEARTED – Baghdad, 1925-1929

Rural Arab folk singers, Kurdish violinists, professional Jewish musicians, and prostitutes share equal billing. Various ethnicities, faiths, and dialects intermingle in a delicate balance that seems impossible by today’s standards. This disc reveals a different side of Iraq from the more festive Choubi Choubi! released by Sublime Frequencies a few years back, one perhaps more somber but also more poignant.

Even without the album’s title, the intense, passionate yearning for love or at least some sort of comfort comes through in this music, whether in the pained vocals of Hdhairy Abou Aziz’s “Wenini” or the Kemani Noubar’s lonesome violin on “Taqsim.” Although the historical value of this collection is important, the virtuosity of the musicians is the real highlight. Blazing runs and hypnotic drones form the background of Badria Anwar’s “Lega Taresh Habibi” while polyrhythmic hand drums work with pleading vocals to entrance the ear on Said El Kurdi’s “Aman Aman Zakko.” Sayed Abbood’s voice in “Shlon Aslak” encompasses a vast emotional and aural landscape, commanding attention with every breath.

Not understanding the languages in which these songs are sung has its drawbacks at times, slowing some of the album’s flow and tiring the ear in places, but that’s almost to be expected on a collection of this breadth and length. The bulk of the material is an exciting hybrid of cultures that blends styles and beliefs in expressions of emotional crises and longing.