Album Notes

About Badawi: Raz Mesinai (AKA Badawi) was born in Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine in 1973,and was raised in New York city. Because of a particularly diverse background Mesinai was influenced by all kinds of music especially by the prayers of Sufi Sheik Murshid Hassan, and Jewish story teller and musician Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, as well as many others. As a child, he spent time in the Sinai Desert with the Bedouins, and later began studying rhythms of Persian, Indian, Yemenite, Moroccan, and Afro-Cuban styles learning a wide range of percussion instruments, including frame drums, the Zarb, the Darabuka, and the Bendir.
Raz is at the forefront of the NYC Academy of Underground DJs, featuring DJ Spooky, DJ Olive, Loop, Lucy, Soulslinger, and WordSound I Powa and is also one half of the influential Dub duo Sub Dub with John Ward. He is also a key founder of Rotor (a collective of composers focusing on the turntable as electronic instrument) with DJ Olive and Toshio Kajiwara. Through his work as a percussionist and composer at such vanguard NYC venues as Tonic, Knitting Factory and the now-defunct Cooler, Raz has increased his visibility as a performance artist and transcended his reputation as a DJ.

About "Soldier Of Midian": Although we loved Raz's first two records with ROIR, this is by far his finest record to date (as Badawi or under any other moniker). On "Soldier Of Midian" Raz samples his own live playing (from Flute to Bendir to Zarb) and agitates the mix with the use of subtle electronic effects. Heavy with Middle-Eastern percussion and a mesmerizing beat, it quickens the pulse and physically unnerves the listener. The pulsating rhythms are aggressive and unyielding, bordering on a hard-core drum record. Badawi's ability to capture a mood and control it, to force his will upon the listener, this is what makes "Soldier Of Midian" so compelling.

A quote from "Soldier Of Midian"
'...AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM,
"COME, JOIN US AND FIGHT FOR OUR GOD." "I CANNOT."
HE REPLIED, "FOR IT IS YOU WHO WANTS ME TO FIGHT, NOT OUR GOD." HE LOWERED HIS SWORD AND THEY RAISED THEIRS. "IF NOT FOR YOUR GOD THEN FOR YOUR PEOPLE," "HOW CAN I?" HE REPLIED. "FOR THEY HAVE NOT TOLD ME TO FIGHT, ONLY YOU HAVE." THEY BECAME ANGRY BUT DID NOT STRIKE. "IF YOU DO NOT JOIN US THEN YOU WILL JOIN THE FAIT OF OUR ENEMIES. "THE WINDS GREW STRONGER AND HE REPLIED, "HOW CAN I JOIN YOUR ARMY WHEN ALL I HAVE IS YOUR WORD? I CANNOT WORSHIP THE MAN, ONLY THE LIFE OF THE MAN. IF THERE IS TO BE A WAR LET THE HORSES DECIDE WHO WILL BE VICTORIOUS, AND EVEN AFTER A PATH HAS BEEN PAVED, EVEN THEN...I WILL ONLY FOLLOW THE STORM."
- THE SOLDIER OF MIDIAN