This Week's Playlist #83 - The Beirut edition
This Week's Playlist #83 - The Beirut edition
Marking the 3 years commemoration of the Beirut blast with 5 songs from Lebanese bands / musicians.
Hello everyone!
This Week's Playlist - Season 2, episode 31.
This Friday marks three years since the blast in Beirut port took place. Many survivors of that day continue to feel the devastating impacts of this horrific tragedy, and Lebanon still has yet to hold anyone accountable for it.
On top of that, the country continues to endure a downward spiral of economic collapse and political slump. People lost all their savings because of the collapse of the Lebanese Lira. They need to hold up their own bank to access their own money. The inflation has been galloping. Electricity access is inconsistent, and the country is still corrupted to the bone by a government holding the country hostage.
We could continue for a long time. However, to bring a lighter mood for the rest of the newsletter, here is a love letter to Beirut on this special day with 5 songs from Lebanese musicians.
Enjoy, and see you next week.
TL;DR: I'm running a musical newsletter with a new guest sharing 5 songs each week.
There is a YouTube link for each of the songs on the cover, and here are the playlists for each streaming platform:
Tidal (coming soon)
Deezer (coming soon)
1. Charif Megarbane - Commencer La-Bas
Charif Megarbane has recorded more than 100 albums, largely at home. In his compositions, he plays every instrument. He calls his style "Lebrary" music: a vision of and from Lebanon and the Mediterranean expressed through the kaleidoscopic lens of library music. The instrumentals draw on a wide range of musical influences, from the fuzz-drenched riffs of Blaxploitation films and the percussive rhythms of West African funk to Lebanese Bellydance psych and 1960s European cinema scores – all reimagined through a contemporary lens.
2. Bachar Mar-Khalifé - Zakrini
If you read this newsletter last year, you remember the burning dancing track from Bachar Mar-Khalifé's first album. This year's track is from his fifth album, On/Off, which he wanted to record in his native Lebanon. More precisely, in the main room of his family house, a stone house standing alone in the mountains north of Beirut. In the house, electricity goes on & off twice a day. Hence the name.
3. Fairuz X Antox - Li Beirut
An electronic rendition of a Fairuz classic by Antox as a relief after the Beirut Blast.
4. Yasmine Hamdan - Balad
Yasmine Hamdan is often considered an icon of alternative music across the Arab world. She was one half of the electronic music duo Soapkills (which I introduced you to last year), along with Zeid Hamdan (cf below).
After Soapkills, Hamdan embarked on a solo career. This song is from her 2017 album Al Jamilat (The Beautiful Ones).
5. Bedouin Burger - Nomad
Bedouin Burger is a musical duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist Zeid Hamdan (the other half of Soapkills) and Syrian celestial vocalist Lynn Adib. They are based in Paris and play a fusion at the intersection of Arabic folk music with pioneering electronica.
Until the next time, Godspeed!
Thomas
Want to comment/reply/say hello? Just hit reply — your email goes straight into my inbox. :)
Did you enjoy these songs? Forward this email to a friend, or buy me a coffee :-)
Missed an episode: Here are the archives.