I trust you, my friends, had a lovely Gregorian-Calendar Boxing Day. I spent mine listening to a Lebanese experimental band called Alif. At least as the liner notes on their Bandcamp site explain, it looks to be a collaboration between Lebanese and Egyptian musicians, and features the talents of the following musicians:

Khyam Allami (Oud)
Tamer Abu Ghazaleh (Vocals/Buzuq)
Bashar Farran (Bass)
Maurice Louca (Keys/Electronics)
Khaled Yassine (Drums/Percussion)

The music is so rich and complex that I’m having a bit of trouble putting to words how to describe it, but the best crack I can give at the moment is that Alif blend elements of traditional music with post-rock, Andalou rock, a vibe of post-punk deep inside of the mix, and a lot of exuberance in the vocals. Really, this is a powerful album that I’m surprised I missed out on, as this was released in 2015.