Hasna | Hasna

It's nothing new for Arabic pop artists to draw from a variety of other musics from around the world. But on her first album, released in 2004, Moroccan superstar Hasna manages to slap memes and cliches from Latin, Punjabi and elsewhere into solidly pop soundscapes to create frisson and fission, rather than bland, seamless fusion.This is, in my not-terribly-humble opinion, one of the most thrilling records to come out of the Arabic pop world in the last decade. I found this gem a week or so ago at the Nile Deli on Steinway Street in Astoria, just a few steps down from the legendary Kabob Cafe.

Get it all here.

Listen to"Inta Il Habeeb"