Natacha Atlas

It's all about roots, really. If you don't know where you come from, and explore that, then you're pretty much just drifting into the future. Natacha Atlas, who's recorded with Jah Wobble and been a vital part of Transglobal Underground, knows all about roots. Understanding her Egyptian ancestry and her place in the world - she lives in London - has been the stuff of her three solo albums. On the most recent, Gedida (the Arabic word for new), she's really brought all her past into focus, balancing all the elements to give something that's, well....new. The past meets the present and creates something rather thrilling, and decidedly more organic.

"I like to augment music with technology, because I think it's good to be in the here and now."

"I suppose it was a natural thing," she explains. "I was never a techno kind of person. But I like to augment music with technology, because I think it's good to be in the here and now. You have to represent this time and age, but that's the extent of it. I don't even know how to use a sampler."

Live, Atlas certainly doesn't rely on sequencers and samplers to fill out the sound. She carries a nine-piece band, including Arabic percussion, an Egyptian keyboard player, kanun, and oud among others. So what you get is the authentic deal. And this band, and her own music, has become her focus. As her popularity grows - and she's a star in France, Lebanon, and Morocco - this takes time away from any projects she might want to undertake with Transglobal.

"There really isn't any time to be with them. They will be coming to Egypt, and they'll be involved in my next album. We're still very much bonded together, but it's impossible to be in two places at once! We used to be in each other's bands, but that's impossible now."

If you've always equated Middle Eastern sounds with belly dancing and couscous, you'd better be prepared for a shock here. There's much more depth here, both musically and lyrically, delving into the political on Bastet, but concerning itself more "with the philosophical overview of love."

While it pushes the limits of what's acceptable in Middle Eastern music, Atlas does keep a strong respect for tradition. She re-recorded three songs, where the grammar wasn't good enough, to make them acceptable to the Gulf States, and other countries where there's also some restriction on the freedom of expression.

"My Arabic grammar's really not very good," she admits. "So we changed a couple of lines, and I think we've remixed it, so there's a version of the same album with another title, and some of the track listing is reordered. But I don't know if it was actually released there or not."

Whether you think of her as someone rediscovering her heritage, or someone helping to make Middle Eastern music relevant for a new generation, there's plenty to be gained from her music. You might not understand the words, but the feeling communicates itself perfectly. Class, open your Atlas here....