UNDERGROUND: Basata

Relying on such 'buried' talents as Hisham El Gokh and Khamis Ezz El Arab in their lyrics, with one of their hits authored by one of the masters of colloquial Egyptian poetry; Ahmad Fouad Negm; Basata proved one of the greatest acts that you may ever have to hear. The music is from the gut, the lyrics are from the heart and the feeling you get once you finish a Basata song is one that's very rare to find in any music scene...The feeling that only verbally translates to, 'I gotta hear this thing again'.

Basata's melodies are usually simple, fueled by simple beats and often coming from one of the most interesting musical minds of our age; Nabil Lahhoud who seems to be the godfather of the band. His daughter, Mareez Lahhoud is the lead vocalist and the one responsible for presenting most of the combined beauty of voice, lyric and music. She succeeds brilliantly. Basata chose two logos by the way to represent themselves and which, I think, represent them best. The first one is:

مزيــكا و غنا من هنــا
which roughly translates to:
'Music and song from here'

And the second one is:
هنغــــني للحب و الحاجات التــانية
which roughly translates to:
'We'll sing for love...And other things'

I leave you with one of Basata's most heart-breaking songs. Authored by Ahmad Fouad Negm ages ago (and sung by the late Sheikh Imam with his melody), this beautiful poem was re-composed and made to fit with Basata's beautiful musical style and structure. Enjoy!