Sam Shalabi is an Egyptian-Canadian composer and improviser who splits his time and energies between musical scenes in Montreal and Cairo. He's worked with a diverse range of artists including label-mates Matana Roberts and Eric Chenaux, and is one third of the ethno-psychedelic trio The Dwarfs Of East Agouza, alongside ex-Sun City Girl Alan Bishop and keyboardist Maurice Louca. In fact, there are clear stylistic parallels between this, Land Of Kush's first album since 2013's The Big Mango, and Louca's Elephantine, released at the beginning of this year. Both propose a fusion of free-jazz, Arabic folk and electronics, and both feature the eerily seductive vocals of Egyptian singer Nadah El Shazly. If anything, Shalabi's vision is more ambitious, drawing together over 20 musicians playing two dozen instruments including santur, darbuka and oud. Shalabi's arrangements have a lot of fun slamming together seemingly incongruous blocks of rock'n’roll piano, crawling surf-rock, chugging sax hooks, snarling noise and twitchy improv, in an almost Zappa-esque fashion. But the real bounty can be found lurking in the background, as Shalabi uses a painterly touch to construct misty vistas of flute, subtle electronics and heavenly vocal choirs. The title-track feels like Heliocentric Worlds-era Sun Ra drifting into a Lynchian dream-state. What's not to like?