Omar Souleyman - Jazeera Nights (Sublime Frequencies)
5/5
By: Yousif Nur
Subversive, under the radar and enigmatic are three appropriate, yet understated adjectives to use to describe North east Syria's Omar Souleyman.
Now, normally (and this has been particularly the case over the past year) I'm known for making gross, often bold statements involving superlatives that can exaggerate how unique or leftfield a particular act can appear on the surface. But with Omar Souleyman, one’s first introductory listen to Jazeera Nights truly is a journey in to the unknown.
When ears (European and American assimilated) are tuned in to Jazeera Nights, they can be met with the realisation that there isn’t anything quite like this, anywhere at all. This won't be stocked in many world music outlets in corporate chain leviathans with a patronising sheen alongside sounds of Java or mediation tapes from India designed to be listened to over a pot of jasmine tea. That however, is much more a testament to Omar Souleyman's label, the Seattle based Sublime Frequencies, whose modus operandi is to seek out music from under every stone unturned in the vast musical wilderness. This encompasses everything – from 60's Indonesian garage rock bands to an album completely devoted to a Radio Palestine broadcast, Arab folk dabke (which in Arabic translates as being a form of traditional Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian and Iraqi dance that I've jigged to many a time at family weddings) to Orchestral music from Cairo, sartaki from Greece, Jewish and Euro hybrids and Jordanian reverb-heavy guitar pieces all meshed with news, commercials, plays, UFOs and transmissions from secret agents.
Omar Souleyman began his singing career in 1994, and it’s been said that he’s since released 500 cassette albums throughout the Arab world. He is, to all intents and purposes, a traditional wedding singer in his native Hassake, in north-eastern Syria, which borders the Kurdish region of Iraq so conveniently that there's a sizeable pocket of Kurds in the region. There are often mid-song dedications and good will wishes to the just-married couple and their esteemed guests. The polarizing musical landscape between the western world and the Middle East is worth reminding yourself of - there are seldom gigs or concerts, just music channels and cassette kiosks in towns and villages from Damascus to Ra's Al Ain.
Despite that unsurprising exposure, Souleyman remains a figure of popularity in his homeland. He's also been compared by the western media, such is his prolific turnover rate for said cassette releases, to the likes of Mark E. Smith. This is very disparaging, dismissive and downright lazy as the subject matter concerned relates much less to Smith’s favourite themes of obscurity and excess – rather, Omar’s are topics more of euphoria, love, and heartbreak in a heightened melodramatic sense. He can amalgam the frenetic, unremitting and trance=like Choubi of Iraq, the Kurdish Dabke and traditional Arab and Turkish melody via his three man backing band, replete with Arabian Oud and keyboards with drum machine in-built. It's all very simple in set up you'll notice, but still there's a sense that there's almost nothing the band can't do, that there's a boundless limitation to their dynamic. But what's equally sweeping is just how uncompromising, raw and jagged some tracks are, as they're mostly recorded either straight to cassette, or taped live at gatherings, weddings or Omar's own personal studio space.
The album opener 'Hafer Gabrek Bi idi' (‘I Will Dig Your Grave With My Bare Hands’) provides a template of what to expect with keyboard shrills, traditional Arab drumming and fast rhythmic clapping. It pretty much sets the trend for the album, bar the final sombre and poignant track, but as much stubborn with the overbearing keyboard 'Eih Min Elemkom' (From The Day That I Told You) is tragedy personified, regardless of whether you can understand Arabic or not.
But isn't music a universal language anyhow? A currency used to break down barriers to help understand and to build bridges instead of being insular and sticking to our radio sets? Essential, important and vital, Omar Souleyman truly is the real deal – and it can never be said that Jazeera Nights isn't one of its own kind.
Artists in this article: Omar Souleyman
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