A master at incorporating disparate idioms into a singular musical vision, all Ziad Rahbani’s finer qualities come to the fore on this single (which I sadly don’t own – original copies flutter around the £300+ bracket). Rahbani was far from a one-trick pony, earning equal respect as a playwright and political commentator as for his boundary-breaking compositions. Both sides here max-out the 12-inch single’s extended format, the ney-laced A-side weaving eastern string motifs around slap bass, choked funk guitars and patterned hand drums. At nearly 13 minutes, the voluptuous ‘Prelude (Theme From Mais El Rim)’ trumps it by the slimmest of margins. Written for a play by his father and uncle that originally starred Rahbani’s mother (revered Lebanese singer Fairuz), it marries disco beats with jazz vamps, timely blasts of sax, synth improvisations and perfectly drilled horn and string sections. An epic taste of Rahbani’s never dull soundtrack work (see also 1978’s Bennesbeh Labokra… Chou? and 1980’s ambitious three-hour The American Motion Picture) Rahbani makes difficult transitions seem easy and effortless. Reissued on Record Store Day by wewantsounds in 2019 (the label pictured in this post), ‘Prelude…’ is a glittering disco ball B-side that never you never want to stop spinning.