Malek Jandali Freedom Qashoush Symphony

Malek Jandali has released a new album “Emessa”, titled after the ancient name for Homs, one of the cities at the centre of the Syrian uprising. The record features songs explicitly about the uprising.

It’s a threat when you have a true artist or a beautiful Syrian symphony, that’s being truthful, that’s playing in harmony - that’s a threat to the regime. They want individuals that they can control and say, ‘Go and sing for Assad and go and sing for our army’. (Malek Jandali)

Cultural dissent is vital to a revolution, and is greatly feared for its subversive power.

The importance of cultural dissent lies in four things primarily. By using peaceful means, artists reinforce the peaceful nature of the protests, even in the face of brutal repression. Cultural dissent also sways the undecided, allowing them to imagine a world after dictatorship. In his public speeches since the uprising began, President Al Assad has often talked about the future, about what his government will do months and years down the line.

The importance of this is not lost on his listeners: it is verbal reinforcement of the permanence of the regime. The regime, in this telling, is not going anywhere, so any opposition will eventually be punished: weeks or months or years later, the regime will still find its opponents. Cultural dissent attacks this narrative, showing that the regime is far from permanent. By legitimising dissent, the undecided middle see that a world after Mr Al Assad is possible and it pushes them to join the protests, to move from the middle ground towards the protest camp.

Article edited from Faisal Al Yafai’s piece in The National

“Blitz the Ambassador” is a track taken from the album Suerti by Morocco’s fusion singer Oum El Ghaith Benessahraoui, aka Oum. In an interview with Qantara, Benessahraoui said about her new album:

Most songs are about love and sensuality. But I also want to show just how much Morocco is the gateway between Africa and Europe. The track “Harguin” tells of African refugees who are dreaming of Europe. I recorded this track with ‘Blitz the Ambassador’, a rapper from Ghana who now lives in New York. Another track is about globalization. Unlike my first album, Likum, almost all of the music on this album is acoustic. All the instruments were recorded in acoustic. I wanted to hear more of myself on this album, less arrangements and effects.

Iranian rappers sing for people of Homs in Syria

This song is produced by Emad Ghavidel and Hamed Fard for the people of Homs in Syria. 

Sound collage by Checkpoint 303 (Tun/Pal/Fr) - the audio in this video was taken from a live recording of the opening of Checkpoint 303’s live performance in Santiago de Chile (February 5th, 2011) several weeks after the fall of the Tunisian dictator. The video kicks off with audio excerpts from a propaganda video produced in the Ben Ali era (source: nawaat.org).

thearabwinter:

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The Narcicyst - Fly Over Egypt
Directed by Wesam Nassar
Song Produced by Bei-Ru
All Lyrics by The Narcicyst (Y.Alsalman)
Artwork by Sundus Abdul Hadi, Ridwan Adhami, Tamara Abdul Hadi and Nik Brovkin
2012 All rights reserved by The Medium

Omar Offendum | Straight Street

thepoliticalnotebook:

Tunisians are marking January 14th, the first anniversary of the launch of their revolution (and the revolutions of other North African and Middle Eastern countries that followed suit and continue to do so). In honor of that, have a listen to “Rais Lebled (Mr. President),” an important protest rap song from well-known activist rapper El Général.  The description on the YouTube has a decent English translation and the Arab Revolutionary Rap blog has a very nice one up, too. 

[via]

O People of Egypt Stand Your Ground

As the people rise up once again to bring change to Egypt, standing in the face of adversity, wise to the political games of Egypt’s ruling faction, this song by Josh Kumra sums up what the people of Egypt, the people across the Middle East, and the people standing against capitalism across the world must do - Stand Your Ground.  

OUTLANDISH COVER PAKISTANI ROCK LEGENDS JUNOON FOR THEIR 20TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM

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