The Hour of Two Lights

The Hour of Two Lights is a one-off collaborative album between British solo-artist Terry Hall, formerly of the 2 Tone and ska revival band the Specials, and Mushtaq, a member of British-based multi-ethnic hip-hop–ethno-techno–world fusion music group Fun-Da-Mental.

Composition and release
The album was written and produced by the duo, with the exception of "Ten Eleven" which was written with Oujdi and Hall's regular collaborator and label-boss of Honest Jon's, Damon Albarn. Receiving good reviews, the album was released on CD and double-LP by Albarn's Honest Jon's label in Europe (distributed by EMI) and the US (distributed by Astralwerks) in August 2003.

It was Hall's last release of new material, after which he rejoined the Specials as a regular member for live performances, until the release of the Specials' album Encore in 2019.

Critical response
Robin Denselow of The Guardian rated it 4/5 and said of The Hour of Two Lights, "Two of the pioneers of multicultural British pop are back with a daring, thoughtful set..." Ollie Davies of BBC Music said, "It's a political and musical recording of racial minorities and cultures by two of today's pioneers of modern popular music." Sean Westergaard of AllMusic rated One and One Is One 3/5 and thought "Terry Hall took quite a chance on this one, doing something unlike anything in his catalog and pulling it off without a hitch. Well done."

Jeff Brown of CMJ New Music Monthly called it "...a fantastic mélange of East and West, traditional and modernmusic." Uncut rated it 4/5 and called it "...a fantastic record of banging global grooves..." PopMatters of Will Harris thought "The Hour of Two Lights can expand one's musical horizons considerably."

Personnel

 * Terry Hall – vocals, banjo, jaw-harp
 * Mushtaq – darabuka, drums, keyboards, percussion


 * Additional musicians
 * Damon Albarn – voice, melodica
 * Louai Alhenawi – ney
 * Abdul Latif Assaly – voice
 * Nathalie Barghach – voice
 * Sammy Bishai – violin
 * Calum Cook – cello
 * James Dring – recorder
 * A.K.Durvesh – shehnai
 * Numan Elyer – percussion
 * Eva Katzler – voice
 * Matthew Kent – scratch deejaying
 * Hajaj Kenway – percussion
 * Eddie Mordue – clarinet
 * Oujdi – rap
 * Herinderpal Panesar – dhol
 * Romany Rad – accordion, bass, guitar, voice
 * Zoe Rahman – piano
 * Mazin Abu Sayf – oud, accordion


 * Technical
 * Terry Hall – producer, mixing
 * Mushtaq – producer, mixing
 * Tom Girling – engineer, mixing
 * James Dring – assistant engineer
 * Will Bankhead – photography, design
 * John Ainley – drawing
 * Elizabeth Cook – drawing
 * Len Wheeler – drawing