Haneen

Brickwork Lizards describe themselves as an Arabic jazz-folk ensemble. Based in Oxford, the ten-strong group have released their second record, Haneen (meaning ‘Nostalgic Yearning’ in Arabic), mixing pre-war jazz from the 1930s with traditional Middle Eastern music. If that were not enough, there's also a little bit of rap thrown in at times throughout the record. What to make of all of this? Well, to be honest – not a lot. Opening track ‘All That We Are’ sets the tone for what's to follow with plenty of violin, bass, cello and indeed everything else one would expect from a ragtime jazz group. The main issue with this record is that, despite its quirky efforts, there's not much variety beyond said pre-war jazz.

Another problem is that at this moment in time there are plenty of Arabic music acts pushing the envelope with cutting-edge works of art; this isn’t offering anything that's all that different. Though that's not to say it's a bad record per se, but it's not far off from being background music. Not terrible, but not groundbreaking either.