Saadia Jefferson

On first impressions this sounds like a Middle Eastern Manu Chao. Or maybe DIY Ethio-jazz. Or then again, it could be desert-scorched Balkan beats. It is, first and foremost, the story of Tel-Aviv-based Eyal El Wahab's search for his Yemeni roots. With his international group El Khat he uses an orchestra of traditional, modern and home-made instruments. There are powerful horn riffs, razor-sharp electric-guitar breaks, shimmering organ contours and driving basslines, underpinned by a relentless clatter and crazy dance of percussion. The whole thing is shot through with a deep sense of longing and melancholy, refecting the leader's search for a distant homeland – the echo of Yemeni folk songs never far away.

The album has a naive, homemade sound to it, but there is clearly a sophisticated, creative mind guiding the project. In fact, El Wahab was lead cellist in the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra before he left in order to focus on this new work. In the end, this glorious cacophony is an amalgam of all the above elements and the result is one of the most original albums of the year in any genre.