Release : The Habibiyya - If Man But Knew
Artist : The Habibiyya
Album : If Man But Knew
Genre : Psychedelic Rock
Source : CDDA
Label : Sunbeam Records
URL :
Date : 00-00-2007
Encoder : LAME 3.97 / -V2 --vbr-new
Quality : 186kbps 44100 kHz Joint Stereo
Tracks : 11
Time : 63:19 min
Size : 85.78 MB
1 Two Shakuhachis 1:40
2 Koto Piece 5:03
3 Eye-Witness 8:22
4 Mandola 5:51
5 If Man But Knew 9:01
6 Fana-Fillah 8:35
7 Procession of the God Intoxicated (Bonus Track) 2:27
8 Peregrinations (Bonus Track) 3:09
9 Peregrinations Continued (Bonus Track) 6:42
10 Another Ode (Bonus Track) 6:05
11 Bird in God's Garden (Bonus Track) 6:24
This is a reissue of the debut (and only) album from the Habibiya, which was
originally released by Island in 1972. The group was formed by three members of
the underground outfit Mighty Baby, who made an extensive journey to Morocco in
1970 which profoundly influenced them, both spiritually and musically. After
returning to London, they joined forces with two additional, like-minded,
multi-instrumentalists from Northern California to complete their group
dedicated to creating flowing, organic, Middle-Eastern influenced music.
The set starts a bit slowly, with the first two pieces being fairly minimal and
only using spare instrumentation. Beginning with the third and, perhaps, the
discÆs best track ôThe Eye-Witnessö, they apply their full sonic arsenal,
combining the common instruments of modern, Western music (acoustic guitar,
flute, piano, organ, viola, and so on) with more exotic instrumentation (such as
bina organ, mandola, nay flute, shakuhachi, zither, and all manner of
percussion) and mesmerizing vocal stylings to craft beautiful and hypnotic
psychedelic ragas of the highest caliber. This CD also contains five tracks of
bonus material which was intended for a second, never released LP. They are
similar in nature, although they are, obviously, less fully developed and also
tend to lean slightly towards the more modern, Western spectrum of sound. Still,
ôAnother Odeö is another very authentic sounding psych raga and ôBird in God's
Gardenö, while clearly exemplifying more modern, Western forms, is simply too
damn cool, with its droning keyboard washes and primal percussion (which
reminded this listener of underground legends the Silver Apples!), to overlook.
Although ôraga rockö reissues are quite in vogue of late, ôIf Man But Knewö by
the Habibiyya is clearly one of the most authentic sounding and best of the
class!