The Habibi Party · The Pending Folder
Tarek Antabi: Riyadh-based house music pioneer, on the decks since 1999. Performances in New York, Miami WMC, Paris, Monte Carlo, Beirut, Dubai, Cairo. Tamer Antabi: London. Just started. Doing it for the love of the music. And we like that.
Tammany Hall · 17.03.12
Tarek Antabi
Tarek Antabi is one of Saudi Arabia's pioneers in house music, on the decks since 1999. Based in Riyadh, he has performed in New York, Miami (WMC), Los Angeles, Boston, Paris, Monte Carlo, Beirut, Dubai, Hammamet, Nicosia, and Cairo alongside David Guetta, Erick Morillo, Behrouz, Paul Harris, and John Acquaviva.
His brother Tamer moved to London and only began DJing a few months before this conversation. He is doing it for the love of the music. And we like that.
Greatest inspirations and musical influences?
It would have to be Tarek above anything else since he is who got me into this. But off the top of my head the names that come to mind besides him are: Better Lost Than Stupid, Sub Ann, Dyed Soundroom, Visionquest, Guti.
TarekDeep Dish back when they were dope, anything they did before dropping their album George Is On. Danny Howells. And Sander Kleinenberg before he became a sell-out and completely changed his style with This Is Miami.
Most memorable set so far?
Too many to list but two that stand out: Russ Yallop Act Natural at Cargo, 8 April 2011, and Richy Ahmed's fabric promo mix. One thing I can say for certain: the best party I have ever been to would have to be Get Lost during Miami Music Week 2011. And by the way, I enjoy listening to sets way more than Tarek does.
TarekDeep Dish Yoshiesque 2 (this is what made me switch from mainstream to underground), Sander Kleinenberg Nubreed 004, Deep Dish GU: Toronto, and Sharam's GU Toronto After Hours compilation. PS: Tamer's right, I spend all my free time going through my pending bag.
How would you describe your music?
If we like a tune then we play it. It might be deep, it might be techy, it might be groovy, it might be funky, it might be disco-ey, it might be all-out techno. You cannot pigeon-hole us to a certain style. But definitely we are not commercial.
Favourite websites?
soundcloud.com, skysports.com, chelseafc.com, rebelrave.tv.
Tarekbeatport.com, tanktheory.com, and dancetrippin.tv once in a blue moon when they have a great episode. In terms of blogs: I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you.
Anything else you'd like to share?
I should explain what the pending bag is. It is a folder on my desktop called "pending" where I keep all the music I download from blogs for the week. Usually the folder accumulates about 500 tracks per week. On my weekend I sit down for hours going through it until I trim out all the fat and keep the tunes I am happy with.
Stay curious,
