UAE-based techno label Bedouin Records commissioned Dublin’s Eomac (Ian McDonnell) to work with label owner Salem Rashid’s personal archive of Arabic music and the result is the Bedouin Trax double LP released on September 9, 2016. McDonnell discusses the arduous process as well as his reverence and for this source material with Resident Advisor and breaks it down track by track with Ransom Note. Critical praise is already flowing in:

…from clouds of crackle that prick the skin like 10,000 tiny sparks, to breathy roars that seem to emanate from your own torso… – The Wire

Pounding electronics and rhythms clash with those mysterious and magical snapshots of Arabic musical tradition … enveloping their inherent qualities in some of the most forward-thinking production out there at the moment. – Rwdfwd

Taking samples from a bouquet of Moroccan street sounds, Sufi ritual music and Baghdadi dabke, Eomac diffuses and enmeshes their integral, individual atmospheres and sacred geometries in an often haunting, curiously distanced consolidation of acoustic and electronic, east and west sensibilities that’s respectful to the material yet faithful to his electro-techno roots. – Boomkat

McDonnell prepared an exceptional mix of the finished material and his influences for NTS and a subsequent 10″ “Observe The Vessel Beneath You” has already been announced for release in November by Bedouin from which the lead track can be streamed via Inverted Audio. Bedouin Trax live A/V will feature the video work of sYn with projections tracking the movements of a dancer trained in Middle Eastern styles in real time and will debut at Unsound festival in Krakow on Friday, October 21, 2016. And as if that weren’t enough, McDonnell has also announced the launch of his own label Eotrax with a 10″ for the single Temple of the Jaguar dropping Nov.11 and a music video soon to follow.

NOW BOOKING: Bedouin Trax live A/V and DJ sets brandon [at] lb-agency.net