Nechazz // Pieces of a Dream

Had Pieces of a Dream slipped quietly onto shelves in 1989, its satin-smooth grooves might have seemed perfectly at home beside the era’s sophisti-pop and modern soul. Instead, Nechazz’s music stayed private for nearly four decades. Recorded between 1988 and 1989 in a small eight-track home studio in Amman, the album captures Palestinian-Jordanian musicians Basim Said and Khaldoon Nasser with Iraqi singer and guitarist Kassim Sabounchi, writing originals after nights spent playing covers at the local club Rumours. That after-hours quality gives the record much of its charm. “Love the Way You Make Me Feel” and “Love Meeting Love” move on elastic basslines, glassy keyboards, clipped guitar, and Sabounchi’s easy, yearning vocals, while “Over You” leans into the immaculate melancholy of late-’80s adult pop. The reference points are clear: Sade, Level 42, Bobby Caldwell, early George Michael, Steely Dan, and city pop all hover around the edges. Yet Pieces of a Dream never feels like imitation. Its modest home-studio setting softens the polish just enough, giving these carefully arranged songs a warmth and intimacy their bigger-budget contemporaries often lacked. Even the instrumental “Give and Take” carries that balance of precision and looseness, with the rhythm section doing as much storytelling as the melodies. Rescued from cassette and finally issued by Habibi Funk, Pieces of a Dream expands the label’s map of Arab popular music while revealing a late-1980s Amman scene reaching outward, absorbing global sounds, and quietly making them its own.