BANDS, MUSICIANS AND LABELS

Transglobal Underground   The band who were a major early influence on Secret Archives of the Vatican and who introduced us to dance music. Awesome groove-driven music drawing from Arabic, African and Asian music as well as techno, house and drum'n'bass. Buy all their albums if you have any taste at all! Genre-defying music of the highest quality!

Natacha Atlas   Billboard magazine said: 'Natacha Atlas seamlessly melds authentic Indo-Arabic musical forms with a mélange of North African and contemporary Western musical influences'. We say she is a genius and she is a huge influence on the Archives.

Barraka el Farnatshi    Switzerland based record label that releases cutting edge Moroccan Arabic and Berber shabee/rai/hiphop/dub/dance music. Check it out if you're bored with the western mainstream. Bill Laswell's name appears on some of their albums as producer and bassist and that's a good thing. Artists include Ahlam, Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects and Amira Saqati.

Clotaire K   Lebanese - French  hiphop of the finest quality! Groovier than a thing with lots of grooves. The album, Lebanese, is awesome.

Mercan Dede   Mercan Dede believes that when you put digital, electronic sounds together with hand-made, human ones, you can create universal language, capable of uniting old and young, ancient and modern, East and West. We know that he makes amazing music.

Aradhna    A band who use vocals, guitar, bass and sitar to perform bhajans in the Christian bhakti tradition. There are articles on the history and theology of bhajans, there are mp3s and there is an order of service from a Christian satsang.

Versionist    Community dedicated to the development of progressive reggae music. If you like dub and reggae this is an excellent site with a whole stack of free downloads from artists all over the world. A good place to get your stuff heard and a great place to check out new artists. There is a great vibe to the place the tunes are very high quality. Keep a close eye out for our very own Talking Dog's tunes; righteous conscious dub that makes you feel irie!

Shri   Bass player extraordinaire and leading light in the UK Asian music scene.

Cheb I Sabbah   San Francisco based DJ and producer of Algerian origin, he makes amazing music that is very Indian influenced but more recently has included more  North African Arabic and Berber influences too.

U-Cef   London-based DJ and producer who makes superb music with Moroccan roots. Vince saw him DJing at the Gnawa Music Festival in Essaouira, Morocco, in 2005 and Vince and Pete met him at the same festival in 2007  - and they worked with him in 2008, playing two gigs as part of the Jambash in Essaouira. U-Cef joined them for one of the gigs playing timbales.

MUSIC PRODUCTION

Maqamworld .com   Dedicated to helping musicians understand the maqamat or modes used in classical Arabic music. Each maqam is written on a stave, played on various instruments and demonstrated in examples from albums. The site does the same for all the most common drum rhythms used in Middle-Eastern music.

Unfretted   Excellent site for players of fretless guitar and other fretless instruments. Great articles, reviews, video lessons, forum and more.

Mike's Oud Website   Very special site dedicated to the oud, a stringed instrument used in Turkey and the Arab world. In fact, it is the ancestor of the European lute (from the Arabic 'al-oud'). Amazing videos and mp3 files, video lessons and an extremely helpful forum.

Quick & Dirty Guide to Dumbek Rhythms   The Dumbek (or Darabuka, or Egyptian tabla) is the goblet-shaped drum found all across the Middle-east and the Maghreb. Made of clay or aluminium, they're cheap, they sound great, they're easy to get in Britain and parts of the USA.

CULTURE

CyberGnawas    Site dedicated to the Gnawa, (or Gnaoua, French spelling) a mystical brotherhood of musician healers in Morocco, and their recent representation on the internet. Scholarly site but has good links.

Blue Like Jazz   An online community of (mostly) Christians who like to kick ideas around and share their music and artistic creations. Most members of Secret Archives hang out here.

Ethnotechno   Awesome website dedicated to Global Beats. News, reviews, interviews, galleries etc.

SPIRITUALITY

The Secret Archives of the Vatican   This is the actual real secret archives in the Vatican! There are thousands of manuscripts going back hundreds of years and no-one really knows what's in there. There were once over a hundred thousand but most were destroyed by Napoleon's troops. No, there's nothing in there about flying saucers, druid space travellers or Illuminati plotting to take over the world. Probably.

Syriac Orthodox Resources   Information about the Syrian Orthodox Church, one of the oldest denominations in Christianity which keeps the ancient Aramaic culture alive. Particularly interesting page about their Bible which is in a language very similar to the language Jesus spoke.

Muslim Wake Up!  Seeks to bring together Muslims and non-Muslims in efforts that celebrate cultural and spiritual diversity, tolerance, and understanding. Has some very interesting articles, a variety of views and a lively forum. There is a section in the forum called Hug-A-Jew Nominations.

OTHER INTERESTING WEBSITES

Secret Archive's MySpace page   Well, you've got to have one these days, haven't you? Check out our most excellent Friends and the nice comments they've left.

Uncle Riotous's MySpace page   Well, you've got to have one these days, haven't you? Even Uncle Riotous, a friend of our Uncle Jamaal, has one. Some Rastas helped him pimp his page.

Gymbeat  Learn to drum and exercise at the same time with one of the Secret Archives percussionists, Paul Midgley.

Suburban Demographic  Run by sometime Secret Archives keyboard player, Tim Mountford. Suburban Demographic, for all your graphical design needs.