I just found an old Egyptian cassette on the streets of Cairo.
It's still working and the music reflects the charm of the city:A feeling of time traveling, surrealistic retro rituals, contorted colonialism, outmoded elegancy and passionate spiritualism.
But tapes can also be found on markets, near coptic churches, islamic mosques and in proper music shops. A very good and adventurous place to go for obscure shopping is the Friday market under the Muqattan Hills near the City of the Dead. I bought a bag full of tapes without cases from an old man who was sitting on the dusty street and all he had to sell was a pile of worn out cassettes.
Tapes in Coptic Cairo.
Sot El Kahira (The Sound of Cairo) is a music shop with several branches located in Downtown Cairo. The shop stocks tons of cassettes and CD's of arabic music and the classic classic Egyptian crooners.
I had a few cassettes that I bought when I was in Egypt in '90. I can't find them now. They were instrumental and seemed traditional, not pop-influenced. I'm searching the web for something similar, and it is quite hard to come by, as what seems to make it to the international market is either flavored ancient/historical, pop, or artistic/thematic, if you follow. Your post here is exactly what I would be looking for, except no actual music. Now I do have my Nakamichi hooked up to a Onkyo SE-U55 that connects to my computer, so I can transfer cassettes to digital files very successfully. Should you be eager to share- I know, Im a stranger, but I'm half serious!- I'm in Chicago. wemist01@hotmail.com
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