V/A: Habibi Funk: A Selection Of Music From Libyan Tapes (2LP) [HABIBI FUNK]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set gathers 15 tracks across four sides, with an insert Record Collector singled out for praise. The Quietus said it plays like an ideally sequenced mixtape from a friend trying to turn you on to something they love.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Printed insert
• Stereo mix

About the album

Most compilations start with somebody's record collection. This one started in an abandoned factory in Sousse, Tunisia, where Habibi Funk boss Jannis Stürtz found a stash of Libyan cassettes and set about turning them into the label's latest dig through Arabic music history. The set came out in July 2025.

The music runs from the 1980s to the early 2000s and hops happily between reggae, synth-pop and funk, mostly from artists few listeners outside Libya will know. Khaled Al Melody's "Jani Bigool" reworks Peter Tosh's take on "Johnny B. Goode," Khaled Al Reigh's "Zannik" turns Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" into what Mojo called an incredibly ominous Arabic disco version, and The Wire's Francis Gooding picked out "Kul Ghrub" as a highlight.

Habibi Funk, run out of Berlin, has built a whole catalogue on this sort of rescue work, reissuing funk, jazz and pop from across the Arab world. This one is warm, odd and endlessly replayable, the kind of set that sends you straight back to side A. Somewhere in Sousse there's a factory a few tapes lighter, and nobody has written in to complain.

Also at Kops: more Habibi Funk on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Habibi Funk (cat# HABIBI031), the 2025 compilation.