Jeezo. Next time I’m taking the Justin Bieber single. At
least then I can just write “pish” and be done with it. But no, I keep picking
the stuff that’s incredibly hard to write about as I have no frame of
reference. Arabic music doesn’t normally feature heavily on my stereo. I just
about typed the word melismatic. I had to Google it first to check what it
meant (hypnotic and trancelike apparently).
As tricky as this is to write about, there is some stuff I
can make sense of. The backbone of this album is drones and repetition,
something I’m particularly fond of anyway. Melismatic vocals (yeah, I went with
it anyway) drift in on the back of traditional Arabic instruments like the Buzuk
and Zurna. But this isn’t an Arabic folk record, there’s electronics and synths
sneaking in there; field recordings floating through the notes and enough
drones to keep the CIA happy.
The whole record is coated in both Arabic and middle-east
influences - despite calling Quebec home, Beirut and Lebanon still loom large in
the mind of founder Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. He spends a few months a year back
there. As a result, this is music that drips with a determination to be heard
on its own complex terms. It is fucking righteous.
In saying all this, there is a touch of the familiar on Mo7it Al-Mo7it. Radwan has been a major player on the Montreal scene for a few years
now, not least due to his part ownership of Hotel2Tango. It’s this tone and
feel that is familiar, particularly to fans of other Constellation bands who
may have recorded with him.
Apparently Jerusalem In My Heart only play once or twice a
year and each show is completely different from the last, blending the
trademark drones and chants with film and additional loops. This here record is
a mere document of the ideas which formed around the project; it’s an exciting
glimpse into a transient project that we’d otherwise lose, and for that we
should be thankful.
Mo7it Al-Mo7it is released on 19 March through Constellation Records
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