5 Video Clips from UAE: Home Is Where No Home Is

Playlist

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a place where the traditional meets the modern. It is a multinational country that consists of 11.48% Emirati and 88.52% Expat population. The juxtaposition of new and old has enriched the cultural environment, helped by the fact that the UAE is known as a very welcoming country for expat artists. Our video list consists of expat artists based in Dubai who released music independently to build a scene in a country that feels like home even when people come and go. For expats like us, who have been living there for a long time, there is no permanent feeling of being home, so we savor the moment.

Music: Hamdan Al Abri
Album: Hamdan Al Abri
Track: «Falling», UAE, 2011

Vocalist Hamdan Al-Abri released his music video «Falling» in 2012. It was filmed across his hometown of Dubai, UAE. «The video shows me wandering through different parts of Dubai, lost in my own thoughts, trying to make sense of my life and everything that's going on in the world. I'm surrounded by people, the city and yet I feel alone... I'm sure a lot of people have gone through the feeling of isolation at some point in their lives... I think the video embodies that feeling perfectly», said Hamdan.

Music: Noush Like Sploosh
Album: Whimcycle
Track: «Lonely at Night», UAE, 2013

Dubai-based multidisciplinary artist Noush Like Sploosh describes her music as «musical theater meets folk», but to her listeners it’s more like Tim Burton meets Kate Bush. She made «Lonely at Night» in 2013. However, it was officially released in 2018 as she did a monthly release of each music video from her album Whimcycle.

Music: Empty Yard Experiment
Album: Kallisti
Track: «Entropy», UAE, 2014

Empty Yard Experiment is a progressive rock band. Founded in 2006, EYE has created a reputation for its live shows, where the band's music is complemented by the use of conceptual and visual art. The song originally featured on their 2014 album, Kallist.

Music: WYWY
Album: Within You Without You
Track: «Epileptic Dreams», UAE, 2014

WYWY is a dream pop/ethereal wave couple based in the United Arab Emirates. «Epileptic Dreams» was included in our EP album, Within You Without You, released in 2017. The video features our son who was 7 years old during that time, and was seen dancing around the city of Sharjah. The song is like a lullaby for our son when he was diagnosed with a mild epilepsy and was having a hard time sleeping, which is what inspired the song.

Music: Swerte feat. Tim Hassall
Album: That’s Just the Thing
Track: «That’s Just the Thing», UAE, 2021

Lucky Swerte Schild was born in Indonesia. He has dedicated his life to working as a full time sound engineer at a TV station, where he works with various bands and musicians in the UAE and internationally. We have watched him perform live and this song caught our attention because of how he tells the story behind it. «Well I am a man and I crumble too at times. I too falter and become a clumsy shattered version of myself during the dark moments of my life. I fight with the heaviness of the world throwing its barrage of obstacles at me trying to pull me down into its spiral trap. The holes left in my heart and the fading aching memories in my mind are just proof of the immense love I am capable of feeling and I feel no shame in showing that».

Biography

WYWY is a dream pop duo based in the United Arab Emirates. It consists of X (vocalist, synths & xylophone) & Mckie (synth, bass & guitar). They are known for their dreamy, dark, ethereal sound and visual live performances. They performed on numerous events in the United Arab Emirates such as RiseDCH, The SoundGarden, The Losing Party Party, JBR Street Beats, Freshly Ground Sounds, Bad House Party, Yard01, Fridge Concert Series, and festivals such as Sikka Art Fest, Quoz Arts, and ING-Creative. They also performed internationally at Mutek AE, Singapore, Fete dela Musique in the Philippines, Aqtushetti Music Festival in Georgia, and Museland in Bahrain. They appeared in iLLustrado Magazine’s «The 100 Most Influential Filipinos in the Gulf» 2016, 2018 and in «300 Most Influential Filipinos in the Gulf» 2019. They were featured in Hype Magazine & Polskie Radio in Poland and local radio stations in the U.S. including DKFM. Follow them on Facebook, Youtube, Spotify, Instagram, SoundCloud, or X.

Published on July 11, 2022

Last updated on August 17, 2022

Topics

Music Video

Migration

Loneliness

All Topics

Special

5 Video Clips from

print as pdf

10 Video Clips from Beirut

Playlist

by Rayya Badran

Despite the insurmountable problems musicians living in Beirut face, they continue to produce and perform music against all odds. This selection of ten video clips features some of the talented contributors in the Norient City Sounds: Beirut edition but also other formidable musicians, rappers, singers, and comedians whose distinct energies and musical affinities attempt to cope with an increasingly difficult city, one that doubly inspires and dismays.

Music: Kid Fourteen
Video: Jackson Allers
Track: «Nobody Came, Nobody Wants To (Artist/Director Cut)» (Lebanon, 2020)

Khodor Ellaik’s solo project Kid Fourteen has been a fixture of Beirut’s music venues for years, with several albums now under his belt. His irreverent persona on stage is captured in this video clip from 2020 for this memorable noise-synth-pop number «Nobody Came, Nobody Wants To», awash with his characteristic melancholy voice.

Music: Sandy Chamoun
Video: Alaa Mansour
Track: «Nas el Wahel» (Lebanon, 2022)

«Nas el Wahel», which translates as «People of the Mud», is Sandy Chamoun’s second track from her trilogy entitled fata17oct. Drawing directly from the furor of the October 17 protests in 2019, Chamoun’s track features her ominous, lingering voice and is overlaid with percussive beats and electronic glitches. Artist and filmmaker Alaa Mansour’s hallucinatory video inhabits the song and its multiple meanings, steering clear from formulaic representations of the streets. Listen to Sandy Chamoun’s mixtape here.

Music: Mayssa Jallad and Khaled Allaf
Video: Ely Dagher
Track: «Madina min Baeed» (Lebanon, 2022)

«Madina min Baeed» (The City from Afar) is Mayssa Jallad’s first collaboration with Syrian musician Khaled Allaf, released earlier this year. Collaborating with filmmaker Ely Dagher, the video portrays the body of Mayssa Jallad as an allegory for the city of Beirut, seen whole at a remove but looking closer, it slowly breaks apart to reveal the city’s «layers and layers of destruction & death». Read Mayssa Jallad’s text on the practice of singing in the midst of the October 17 protests here.

Music: Postcards
Video: Lujain Jo
Track: «Sea Change» (Lebanon, 2021)

Released in 2021, «Sea Change» by Postcards, a well-known indie rock outfit from Beirut, is a fitting track to introduce new listeners to its music. The video, shot by film director and video journalist Lujain Jo, who produced countless enthralling videos of the October 17 protests, lays bare the dreamlike sceneries of the band’s lyricist and lead singer Julia Sabra.

Music: Marc Codsi
Video: Sarah Huneidi
Track: «Fugue 1» (Lebanon, 2021)

This heart-rending track by Marc Codsi from 2021 is accompanied by Sarah Huneidi’s visuals that trouble our gaze of Beirut by wistfully moving from one shot to the other, never really focusing or stopping on any element, never seeing it in its place.

Music: Liliane Chlela
Video: Polarys Collective
Track: «2022» (Lebanon, 2020)

Shifting gears with a video clip for Liliane Chlela’s future-looking «2022» from 2020. Made during the confinement of the COVID-19 global lockdown, the video is set in a world dominated by robots and aliens. One robot in particular tinkers with several machines and technologies to the frenetic beats of Chlela’s track. It was possibly easier to imagine the arrival of aliens and the domination of robots prior to the events that unfolded in 2020. This video gives us a glimpse of what worlds one could imagine during this period of isolation. Chlela likes to open musical pathways for her listeners, evident in her mixtape for the Norient City Sounds: Beirut, listen to it here.

Music: Jerusalem in My Heart
Video: Erin Weisgerber
Track: «Qalouli» (Lebanon, 2021)

Visuality has always played an important role in Jerusalem in My Heart’s musical performances and this video, devised as a triptych of desert landscapes and habitats, plays to the rhythms of the music with its stops, glitches, and rings, almost as if they were composed together.

Music: Safa
Video: Sabine Saba
Track: «Ouda and the Strikers at Najd» (Lebanon, 2022)

«Ouda and the Strikers at Najd» is the title track of Safa’s highly anticipated debut album Ibtihalat, out on the UIQ label in the spring of 2022. Covering a wide range of musical and percussive traditions spanning North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Safa attempts in his compositions to imagine the manifold potentialities of the musics that exist in these territories. The animation, shot by filmmaker and animator Sabine Saba, fuses various architectural elements and motifs from the regions Safa is interested in to create a visual experience as delirious as the music itself.

Music: El Rass (produced by Nasam)
Video: Jamal Awar
Track: «Jullanar» (Lebanon, 2022)

Arguably one of the best rappers in the Arabic-speaking world, El Rass released a full album Ard el Khawf (The Land of Fear) earlier in 2022 from which this track is pulled. Awar’s video blends footage from old Egyptian films, animal documentaries, and other absurd situations in which El Rass becomes an unwitting protagonist.

Music: Khansa and Lil Shadz
Video: Aline Ouais
Track: «KHOD» (Lebanon, 2022)

This track, which parodies Arab rap music videos, quickly went viral for its unapologetic and witty lyrics and for featuring Lebanese queer stand-up comedian Shaden Fakih who is famous for being unsparing towards her opponents: religious and political figures. While the video is funny and incredibly catchy – referencing events, chants, and curses towards the political class one could hear during the October 17 uprising – the message it carries is dead serious.

This video playlist is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Beirut» curated and edited by Rayya Badran.

Biography

Rayya Badran is a writer, translator, and educator based in Beirut. Her writings and translations have featured in various publications such as Bidoun, Ibraaz, Art Papers, Norient, The Wire, and more. She has taught courses on contemporary art and sound studies at the department of Fine Arts and Art History at the American University of Beirut since 2014 and has a bi-monthly show on Radio al Hara. Follow her on X.

Published on August 25, 2022

Last updated on December 18, 2023

Topics

Body

City

Protest

Technology

All Topics

Specials

Norient City Sounds: Beirut

5 Video Clips from

print as pdf

10 Video Clips from Nairobi

Playlist

by Raphael Kariuki

The ten music videos in this playlist present the music that inspired the topic of this Norient City Sounds Special. Some, such as «Ganji» by King Kaka are examples of popular current music addressing heavy political themes, while others are a sort of antithesis. All of them are a great sample of the music of the city in early 2022, complemented by visuals that give us an added perspective that corroborates a lot of what has been written or spoken about elsewhere in this edition. A vivid portrait of Nairobi emmerges, with the social and political ambiguities in sharp relief against a vital youthful energy.

Music: King Kaka
Video: Dambiz & King Kaka
Track: «Ganji (Episode 1)» (Kenya, 2021)

The first of six videos all themed around «Ganji» – Sheng for money – was released following King Kaka’s earlier, much-discussed «Wajinga nyinyi – You fools» (see essay by Joyce Nyairo). It was quickly followed by the other similarly hard-hitting videos, which had me interested in why a popular artist known for more regular club fare was suddenly making such «serious», even provocative music.

Music: Wakadinali
Video: Chebeni
Track: «Extra Pressure» (Kenya, 2020)

Wakadinali (and Buruklyn Boyz) are the most prominent of the latest hip hop crews from Nairobi’s Eastlands, maintaining a musical legacy going back to the early days of Kalamashaka (listen to the «Urban Legends» podcast). The members of this group were likely not even born when K’Shaka were inventing Swahili/Sheng rap, and yet here we are today, a group of young virtuoso MC’s making catchy, infectious music and speaking up about the pressures of life in Nairobi’s East, in the language of its streets.

Music: Nelly the Goon x Nameless x Habib x Dmore x Trio Mio
Video: M.O.N.S.K.I.
Track: «Bandana Ya Esir» (Kenya, 2022)

An all-star lineup of the artists that defined the «Boomba» era – see essay by Lutivini Majanja – reunite in this tribute to the late, great champion of the sound, E-Sir, almost 18 years after his passing in a road accident. The inclusion of rising star Trio Mio, only 16, alongside the veterans, suggests that the South C/Nairobi West party might not be over just yet.

Music: Kimani Sunz
Video: Johnson Kyalo
Track: «Touch the Road» (Kenya, 2021)

The scenes from this video are as honest a picture of real-life Nairobi as any you’ll see. Kimani, a rapper/singer/producer based in Kenya and Norway, and the director Johnson Kyalo, captures the soul of the city in its everyday struggle, with humanity, dignity and beauty. Complement with Emma Nzioka’s photo series.

Music: Kitu Sewer x Maovete
Video: Gufy
Track: «Fun Faya Kun» (Kenya, 2021)

Kitu Sewer, a veteran of the Kalamashaka Mau Mau hip hop family, is one of the most gifted and respected rappers in Kenya, regularly named as the greatest ever to rap in Kiswahili/Sheng. In 2021, he teamed up with Maovete, a young and exciting new fusion band to release the album Kiswahealing. In this video, they speak about issues related to health, both mental and physical.

Music: Sewersydaa x Adrian Loci x Laura Stacy
Video: not.Irac
Track: «Najishuku» («Visualizer») (Kenya, 2021)

The realities, dreams, and nightmares of life in Nairobi for many young people unfold in this whimsical yet dark animation by affiliates of Wakadinali. Painted starkly are the frustration with police, government, and other holders of authority.

Music: Ben C
Video: Dan G Frames
Track: «Ningekua God» (Kenya, 2022)

Kenyans are a religious lot, there is a church around every corner in Nairobi. The choice of Christian imagery is thus easy to understand, but rather than preach, Ben C uses humor to speak to typical personal and domestic issues. As with the other videos in this list, the visuals take you inside the neighborhoods where most of us live in this hyped up «global city» of ours.

Music: Juliani
Video: Eli Lang’at, Kassim Said, Kevin Mahatma
Track: «Mabawa» (Kenya, 2022)

Another one of the most respected rappers from the city, Juliani famously converted to Christianity soon after appearing in the classic Kilio Cha Haki album alongside K’Shaka and other members of the Mau Mau school. Religion did not dampen his conscious fervor, if anything it gave Juliani’s music an even greater sense of a mission. In this track, Juliani speaks about the weight of responsibility – «Only an angel knows how heavy the wings weigh». Read my recollection of a day with Juliani at Dandora HipHop City.

Music: Naiboi x Femi One
Video: Trey Juelz
Track: «Jam» (Kenya, 2022)

Nairobi still loves a catchy sing-along party song, a tried and tested formula from the days of E-Sir and Ogopa Deejays. This jam ticks all the boxes, but the reason I like it is mostly to do with the video, a faithful depiction of a kibanda – the common roadside eateries and food vendors, and a comedy style reminiscent of classic old Kenyan TV comedy.

Music: Buruklyn Boyz (Ajay Namba & Mr Right)
Video: Omoke
Track: «Dream Ya Kutoka Kwa Block» (Kenya, 2021)

Buruklyn is Buru-Buru, a relatively well-to-do middle-class neighborhood in Nairobi’s Eastlands. And yet, these rappers at the top of the hip hop and drill scene alongside their peers Wakadinali, speak about the desire, the ambition, even the need to make an exodus from here to somewhere better. The serious tone with which they speak on this track gets my attention.

Bonus Tracks

Music: MC Sharon
Video: Johnson Kyalo
Track: «Kutupanga» (Kenya, 2017)

This video is from 2017, the last time we had our elections. Back then, MC Sharon was addressing politicians and the typical electioneering bullshit. Four years later, facing another election, every last syllable spoken by Sharon is relevant. You could play this song every four years unchanged. Listen to MC Sharon in the «Nairobi Surround» podcast.

Music: Kalamashaka
Video: The Storyteller
Track: «Moi Avenue» (Kenya, 2014)

The T-shirt worn by the dancer in the last frame was a favorite of mine. The video equipment was lent to us for free by my friend Muchiri Njenga of Studio Ang. My other friend Robin «The Storyteller» shot and edited. Adam Chienjo, the choreographer, was at the beginning of his journey in contemporary dance. We paid about $20 for security, from some «associates» of Johnnie and Roba – the Kalamashaka members who were in Nairobi at the time. This was supposed to be the return of K’Shaka after years of hiatus. Sadly, it turned out to be a false dawn. Still, the video and song with its hook «On this side of Moi Avenue/We do not pay revenue» (reference to the Kenya Revenue Authority) present a powerful picture of Nairobi in my opinion. Here is a video of the day we launched the video, seven years ago.

This playlist is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Nairobi» curated and edited by Raphael Kariuki and Kamwangi Njue.

Biography

Raphael Kariuki, aka djrPH, is a Nairobian electronic musician, sound artist, and DJ. He is a resident DJ and curator at The Mist, Nairobi’s first venue dedicated to underground and experimental music. His latest EP, hope/currency, is a collaboration with the spoken-word artist Kins of Spade. Raph is a long-time collaborator with Norient. In 2022, he curated the online publication «Norient City Sounds: Nairobi» together with author and writer Kamwangi Njue. Follow him on Instagram, Mixcloud, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or Facebook.

Published on May 06, 2022

Last updated on February 02, 2023