The concept of world music may conjure many images: Afro-Caribbean jungle beats, Bollywood melodrama, Gypsy disobedience, Celtic mysticism, or perhaps Flamenco flair? Music from the Gulf state of Kuwait, however, is not something that immediately comes to mind. But then again, Kuwait’s hottest selling band and the country’s number one cultural export Guitara, is an ingenious musical phenomenon that is well and truly in the business of defying any possible stereotype you could throw at it.

Mentor Records presented the classic Guitara hit Ya Ghaly to the dance and electronic music world as the featured track in the Sweetwater World Music Remix Competition 2007. Produced by Kuwait’s top musical prodigy Riad Alqabandi, the addictive melody and infectious rhythms of Ya Ghaly may sound oddly familiar; the song was covered and plagiarized hundreds of times in various languages, including multiple Hindi versions in a number of Bollywood blockbuster films.

Mentor Records is delighted to bring this new and exciting sound to ccMixter.