Al Basim

Please consider Al Basim for inclusion in the Archives, probably under the Psychedelic / Space Rock sub-genre:

Born in Baghdad, Basim moved to the United States in 1978, and released his album "Revival" a year later. This is a very rare album which has received critical acclaim. The Al Basim website cites the following:

'This progressive rock disc has become extremely rare and is still praised by critics (“The Fact” magazine mentions the LP as being one of the Top 20 discs in the world for some progressive fans, and it has also been awarded four stars in Hans Pokora’s book “ 3001 Record Collector Dreams”!).'

I recently spotted this album selling for €200 on the internet - claiming only 500 copies exist worldwide.

Album details:



Revival - Al Basim (1979)

Tracklisting:

1. History Of The World (12:13)
2. Poitiers (8:25)
3. Souvenir (3:57)
4. One Camel In Alaska (4:14)
5. Open Space (8:03)

Total duration 36:52

Personnel:

Al Basim - Electro-Acoustic guitar
D Reskin - Flute
J Starrett - Bass
P Carter - Drums
G Keith - Saxophone

Links:

http://www.basimmusic.com/albums.php

Above link is for musician's website, and contains samples of the songs.

http://progressive.homestead.com/PERSIAreviews.html

http://www.manticornio.com/rock-progresivo/R/REVIVAL/revival.html (text in Spanish)

Various websites have suggested Al Basim was killed in Iran by the authorities...thankfuly these turned out to be works of fiction, as Al Basim resides in France.  A member of another band recently included in the Archives that I know has recently been in touch with Basim, and the suggestion is that he is working on another prog related release (which would be great).

Please consider for inclusion - it would be a very worthwhile addition in my opinion.

I'm on vacation now but if J-R/F/NJ doesn't get to it first... the dope smokers will look at it next week when I get back to the states. 

Takesi - if you have any samples or links to samples.. PM them to me and I'll steer them through the appropriate genre teams.  In the meantime if you can work up a bio, since the artist is a bit on the obscure side hahahha.  Many times artists get approved and left on the wayside for lack of time to research.. and lack of info for bios and discographies.


edit  .. just saw the links. Thanks!


Edited by micky - October 11 2008 at 09:58

A very pleasant, pastoral album. Both Jazzrock-fusion and Space/Psychedelic would fit, even if the album reminds me of Popul Vuh (Brüder des Schattens ~ Söhne des Lichts), most of all. 

clarke2001 wrote: I'm glad this topic is not closed...it was a hell of a task, but Al Basim is finally added. Here.

IIIYYYAAAHHHHHOOOOOUUU!!!

Thanks Eclectic mates!