Rainbow Arabia, the brainchild of Echo Park, CA, husband/wife duo Tiffany and Danny Preston (formerly of the dub-punks Future Pigeon), tread curiously close to the sounds of hip-hop acts like M.I.A. and Santogold. But with freewheelin’ ideals, punk urgency, and Middle Eastern-inspired instrumentation, Rainbow Arabia manage to find a tone all their own.
Utilizing eastern instrumentation, including a snake charmer (called a pungi), the duo let loose on the single “Let Them Dance,” which opens with the series of tinny, droning woodwind toots that slowly coax listeners in as a drum circle begins to pound out a simple, continuous tribal beat. Throughout this mesmerizing track, Tiffany’s vocals are distant and fussy as she chants and hollers her stubborn demands to dance. A low-grunting synth and a distorted, brittle guitar sneak in towards the song’s end, catapulting the previously stripped-down dance ditty into a heavy floor-pounder.
The duo’s debut EP, The Basta (Italian for “enough”), a five-track, 20-minute juggernaut, emerges September 2 via their imprint Tiny Man, with ground already broken on a full-length, which is expected to drop in early 2009. And fans looking to boogie down live can catch Rainbow Arabia on the road with root rockers Gangi this October.
Now Hear This: Rainbow Arabia, “Let them Dance”(DOWNLOAD MP3)
