- Ayman Rostom's music as The Maghreban is, at heart, something of a contradiction. Here's a guy who loves old TV shows, and until a few years ago had no interest in going to clubs. That's probably why his late-flowering passion for house music has brought such unique results: this is a stay-at-home guy's take on dance music, and it reflects his old habits in unconventional ways. On "Dynamite!," hair-metal chords crash and stuff explodes as they might on an Airwolf montage. A wobbling Casio bassline is a viscous mass for Rostom's debris to float in, but the dub version, "Dynamite Drums!," holds up his fibreglass-raw rhythm just fine, too.
Rostom says "Calypso Christmas" is the "hypnotic sound of confusion." It seems as if he's latticed several time signatures over one another, but once you unpick the cop show guitars from the aquaplaning MIDI notes its purpose on Dynamite! becomes clear. For the last couple of years, Rostom has been plotting a distinctive path through house music; "Calypso Christmas" is a detour to somewhere much stranger.
Tracklist01. Dynamite!
02. Dynamite! Drums
03. Calypso Christmas