Between the release of their first, self-titled album in 2012 and their second, Taraf Al Khait, in 2016, El Morabba3 caught the transformative spirit of a revolutionary generation with their trenchant indie-rock sound and lyrics. Now, after restructuring the band and moving from Amman to Berlin, founding singer/songwriter/bassist Muhammad Abdullah and the music producer and sound artist Basel Naouri are taking El Morabba3’s earlier aesthetic evolution into a new direction.
Departing from the raw post-rock energy of the first album and the polished instrumental/electronic fervor of the second, the artists have taken a deep dive into experimentation with electronic sound and storytelling. This new direction is more than evident in “Al Wuhoosh,” a wholly electronic track whose dramatic and disquieting sound is pulled off by Basel Naouri’s sonic architecture, with layered vocals and synth cadences quilted by a shrewdly mixed bass and kick. Listeners familiar with the evocative power of Muhammad Abdullah’s lyrics will be happy to find it here again in full force. However you interpret the song’s meaning, “El Wuhoosh” is sure to resonate with anyone who has ever had their world plundered by monsters, and who, like the singer, has ever wished for restoration: “If there’s still some soul in you, / Hey soul, bounce back.”
El Morabba3’s video of “El Wuhoosh” reimagines these sonic and lyric tensions in stark black-and-white – recalling conventions of film noir and horror, fairy tales and graphic novels – while generating a vision of a disintegrated subject, as if to ask: “Are we our own monsters?” Shot on location in Brandenburg, Germany, and created in Berlin with an international team of visual and time-based media artists, the video is another emblem of El Morabba3’s new artistic orientation.
For more information about El Morabba3 in English and Arabic, access to tracks, and concert dates, please visit: https://elmorabba3.com or contact : Mohamed Aser: aser@altorient.com
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Lyrics |
الكلمات |
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My memories have dried up But they are insatiable. |
ذكرياتي جافة |
Translated by Muhammad Abduallah and Bill Martin
