People,
I got this last night and although I was expecting a collection of really good tabla tracks, what is on the CD is way better!
Definitely designed with the performer in mind - longest track is 6:28 - the rest are all 5:45 and under - really lovely orchestrations with plenty of rhythm changes and textures to make the songs highly danceable with opportunities to showcase lots of nice movements within each song.
I think this was recorded in Cairo and it has that big Cairo orchestra sound (El Maseya Orchestra but I don't see the vocalists names on the two tracks with vocals - really great though) and of course you get really great tabla underlying it all and featured throughout. The drum solo track is really good - also as expected.
Tracks for listening & CDs for ordering are here (top CD shown is the new one with the tracks to the right on the screen.)
http://www.amirsofi.com/albums.htm
There are a few tracks that are probably geared toward the tribal fusion crowd but other than that I think it's pretty straightforwardly Oriental. I wasn't particularly drawn to those tracks but I can appreciate the reason for having them in there.