Reggae music from Libya, recorded in 2008. Released for the first
time officially after collecting millions of plays on Youtube.
Ahmed Ben Ali was born in 1971 in Benghazi. He went to boarding
school in Canada for 8 years, and returned to Libya. For a couple of years
he also worked in the UK. Music was never his main job but his “main
hobby” as Ahmed says. Hhe recorded maybe 40 tracks and released two
more albums. He also started playing gigs in Libya with his own band. In
2008 a friend of his decided to set up a youtube account for him by starting
with two uploaded tracks. The account remained untouched since 11 years.
At some points two of the tracks from this account started gaining traction.
“Sibhana”, the infectious Libyan reggae, which you can also hear on this
release and “Damek Majeb”, the second track on this 12 inch which is
leaning more towards a clubby Arabic pop feel.
Ahmed Ben Ali works as a technical engineer and records music in his own
home studio. There he operates as his own sound technician and his own
producer recording the music plus writing the lyrics. A one man musical
army. Contextualizing his own style Ben Ali pointed out that “The Libyan
folkloric rhythm is very similar to the reggae rhythm. So if Libyan people
listen to reggae it’s easy for them to relate because it sounds familiar. This
is the main reason why reggae became so popular here. [...]We played the
reggae Libyan style, it’s not the same as in Jamaica. We added our oriental
notes to it and if you mix both it becomes something great.” With a bit of
laughter he added: “And to me it’s still original reggae, it’s Libyan style, not
some bullshit.”The revolution and overthrow of the Gaddafi regime certainly
affected the musical scene. Ahmed Ben Ali said the events didn’t really
change his music or the approach he had to it but it also didn’t change the
Libyan’s people affection for their own version of reggae music.
What changed in the aftermath of the revolution was the influx of islamic
fundamentalists, political instability and security issues which made the life
of Libyans generally complicated but even more so for musicians as they
were one of the prime targets for the islamists. On top the security situation
minimized concert opportunities, which previously existed. For Ahmed Ben
Ali it meant putting more focus on his day job again yet another big musical
opportunity was going to arise for him.
The vinyl comes with a four page booklet and a DLL code.
