Omar Souleyman @ Beck's MusicBox, Perth (05/03/11)

Tue 8th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Omar Souleyman is an example of what is right about the Perth International Arts Festival. Many in Perth had probably never heard of this man, but on browsing the schedule for Becks Music Box he stood out as a performer with whom we may not have been acquainted had the festival not introduced us. How many arabic popstars make their way to Australian shores?

Souleyman originates from Syria and has been making music there since 1994, with hundreds of his cassette albums distributed throughout the country. Only recently has he been introduced to the Western world and most recently has made the news with the announcement he is doing a collaboration with Bjork. Label “Sublime Frequencies” have distributed three albums outside of Syria that are retrospective collections of chosen from his massive body of work.

The sound has been described as a mixture of Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, Iraqi choubi and the Dabke (an arabic folk style that’s music originated from workers who wanted motivation when they were stamping down roofs made of dirt). So without knowing the intricacies of middle eastern music, it was all a bit of a mystery.

First of all, Lewis Floyd Henry created a stir with his loud one-man banding. He was the same pre-show entertainment as Friday night but seemed louder and more aggressive this evening. Plenty of the crowd were keen on his unique set up.

After a very short break, Souleyman’s collaborator Rizan Sa’id came on stage and started playing the backing beats and music. As Souleyman does not speak English, an introduction was made on his behalf before he calmly strolled on stage. Souleyman looked very cool in his traditional Syrian dress and aviator sunglasses, so cool he had some imitators in the audience.

The music and beats were frantic but Souleyman kept his cool strutting the stage, blowing kisses and amping up the crowd. His vocals were amazing, a traditional sounding middle eastern style vocal that matched effortlessly with the upbeat backing. Without knowing the language many in the audience had no idea what Souleyman was singing but the music and mystery took over. People were on the dancefloor from beginning to end, making do by dancing the only way they knew how. Some were pulling out belly dance moves and one couple looked to be dancing the tango.

It took the crowd to another world and let us imagine we were in a spice market somewhere, with the frantic energy, the hustle and bustle and the prayer call in the background providing a similar tonal feeling to Souleyman’s vocal.