#middle east music

[yasyassie]

for every zionist supposedly worried about queer people's rights (only when it's convenient for them , of course)

and also for anyone who likes discovering new music or who loves oud or wants to support palestinian art, or all three of the above:

Let me introduce you to Clarissa Bitar, beautiful and very queer Palestinian musician and oud player

This is their website

And here are some of my favorite songs and performances:

[misuc]

SANAM on gilles peterson [bbc 6 music]

[nazarjoon]

musician girls 🎶 i love all the instruments found in iranian music and wanted to combine that with my love for traditional attire!

[esoteric44ngel]

[dovesmelodyproject]

The promotion of a K-pop event taking place in Israel ahead of a state-sponsored festival in South Korea has sparked outrage and calls for boycott from fans of the genre, who are accusing Seoul of "artwashing genocide".  The K-Pop World Festival, an annual Korean pop talent competition hosted by the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), is an initiative that utilises the popularity of Korean culture - commonly referred to as the "Korean wave" - to promote the country globally. Korean embassies around the world are responsible for organising a preliminary regional round, and selected finalists then make their way to the stage in South Korea. After the South Korean embassy in Israel started promoting tickets for the 15 July auditions, K-pop fans took to social media in anger and called for boycotts with the hashtags #KpopFestivalOutWithZionism and #NoToArtwashingInKpop. "Artwashing in the middle of a genocide is a new fucking low, even for KBS. Participants and guest performers will never wash off this stain," posted one user on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the use of art and artists by groups to distract from or gloss over rights violations. 

[sounds-of-arabia]

arabic cassette tapes

[pomegranateandcoffee]

today's aesthetic moodboard

[queenlucythevaliant]

We see him come and know him ours

Russia: "Carol of the Russian Children," traditional // Kenya: The Nativity, Elima Njau // France: "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella," Nicolas Saboly // Haiti: Madonna and Child, Ismael Saincilus // Australia: "The Three Drovers," William James // China: Tryptic by Lu Hongnian // Canadian/Algonquian: "Huron Carol," Jean de Brébeuf

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

1975

Fahra by Hany Mehanna : traditional Middle Eastern melodies with lush, cinematic arrangements.

Its intricate percussion, vibrant strings, and playful organ riffs are truly hypnotizing!

[i-ideate]

NPGC WEST END CAST NPGC WEST END CAST NPGC WEST END CAST I AM GOING FERAL IM GONNA CRY OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

[x-heesy]

IT IS BETTER TO BE A WARRIOR IN A GARDEN, THAN A GARDENER IN A WAR. -MIYAMOTO MUSASHI 🇯🇵

New World by Zap Mama 🎧

#maybeiamadreamerbutiamnottheonlyone ✅

[nickysfacts]

Masoud El Amaratly shows how LGBTQ+ individuals have always been a part of Middle Eastern culture!

🇮🇶🎶🏳️‍⚧️

[fabdante]

Hello again Fab! Loved reading your thoughts about Infamous band headcanons- thanks! Following that- you mentioned a love for the 'contemporary indigenous music scene.' It made me curious about who your favs were! Do you have any recs (for those of us who may be unfamiliar) or any particular artists/groups/tracks you would wanna shoutout? :D

👀 yes i would like to talk more about this!!

ok so quick disclaimer: i am far, far from an expert on indigenous music and i am myself not indigenous which like the music im going to share is, i am just very enthusiastic about the fact this music exists and i think it's really cool what people are doing with it. there's a lot i can't cover here and i would really implore anyone interested in this, particularly if you like anything here, to look into what indigenous people are saying and suggesting (or even look into what indigenous musicians themselves are sharing!)

so how this is going to work is im going to imbed a video per band/group/musician and then link some more songs to listen to, because that way no one has to jump off the post and you can get the general vibe of the group before listening to more!

though this will make the post kinda long, even with me trying to be brief, so i put it under a cut!

note: skip down to black belt eagle scout if you want something the most related to your initial ask about delsins band asdfghjkl. that's who i thought of first when receiving the ask and while i think delsins band would probably have a different sound, black belt eagle scout was on my mind the whole time asdfghjk

now onto the rest of the post!

my first recommendation is probably halluci nation, they're probably the one people know of the most? i also recommend them first because they're who i heard first. their song electric pow wow drum was in commercials and stuff for a minute. they do like a mix of pow wow music and dubstep, which i think is really cool.

i'm going to immediately break my rules but that's purely because these two are my favorite of their songs and i think more people need to hear them (also the art is really cool and by artist nalakwsis):

Also honestly their entire album, We are The Halluci Nation, is worth a listen to. Here's the first song off the album to give you not exactly the vibe you're in for but really just a strong thesis statement to what the group, and the album, is about

There's also Tanya Tagaq. I think she's fairly known? Her work heavily features throat singing! Her work has been featured in some films and stuff (you might remember the first song I'll post from commercials for Thoroughbreds):

More Tracks: Rabbit, also she was featured on this Halluci Nation track, Sila

SIMILARLY staying on contemporary throat singing for a moment, I would also like to mention the underrated Piqsiq! I haven't had the chance to dive as deeply into their discography as I would like (hopefully soon!) but I love what I have heard!

More Tracks: Ahiani: Elsewhere

Staying on trend of artists I've heard more recently but haven't been able to dive much into the discography much yet would be Black Belt Eagle Scout!! (This was who first came to mind upon receiving because there's definitely a vibe there):

More Tracks: Indians Never Die, My Heart Dreams

I also think people are generally unaware people are still making traditional music, in traditional ways! For that I would like to turn attention to some of these songs:

i also legally cannot make this post without mentioning redbone, the band behind hit come and get your love, who were themselves entirely indigenous and blacklisted after making the song we were all wounded at wounded knee

and again like there's tons and tons more artists, this is just a brief mention of some of the ones i first heard and some of the ones i'm interested in listening to more of and what not. like with any minority, where there is a music genre, you will find indigenous people making music there so if any of this interest I recommend googling around and seeing what people are talking about in indigenous circles, in music circles, who the musicians are collabing with, etc etc

i just think it's really cool that this is happening because, historically, there's been a lot of bans and limitations on what indigenous people were allowed to do with their cultures so it's really cool to see people doing stuff like this.

EDIT:

I KNEW I WAS FORGETTING SOMEONE I HAD WANTED TO MENTION!!

Silla + Rise are ALSO a throat singing duo! (I think throat singing is very cool and it is very cool what these musicians are doing in this space)

[thievessaintlaurxnt]

Protest art. 💖✊🏾🖌🇨🇩🇸🇩📲🗣👥👥👥

Save the JPEG. Convert it to PDF. Print it at your local print shop. Print it at your local library. Print it at work. Print it at school.

Copy it free hand.

No credit needed.

Making more soon for Sudan & The Uyghurs in China. Stay tuned. Follow for more.

[sounds-of-arabia]

هي من روحِ الشعب خمرٌ

هي من عرقِهِ خبزٌ و ياسمين

فكيف صار طعمها طعم نارٍ و دخان؟

she (beirut) is a wine made of people's spirit from people's sweat she's bread and jasmine so how did her taste turn into the taste of fire and smoke?

— fairuz, le beirut