RFY: El Morabba3
By Abaddi
In our latest edition of ‘Reviews From You’ MENA music fan, Abaddi, explains what makes Jordan’s El Morabba3 one of the most loved bands in region.
It all started as a family affair in 2009 when El Morabba3’s brothers Odai (on guitar and synthesizer), Dirar (on drums) and cousins Tarik (former vocalist) and Muhammad Abdullah (bass player, current vocalist and song writer) met and found a connection through music. There began their journey as El Morabba3. Fast-forward three years and that’s when they released their first single El Morabba3 - Ma Indak Khabar, a number which spread like wildfire on the sound systems of Amman’s youth.
El Morabba3 played different styles of music in their first album. Ma Indak Khabar is a very good example of what is commonly called ‘post-rock’. The song starts with Abdullah’s hypnotic voice and the strumming of an electric guitar and a slow bass line which starts to build with the playing of a Djembe until it breaks into an explosion of instrumental guitar and drum lines, taking the listener on its climactic journey. In Ma Indak Khabar’s lyrics, Muhammad Abdullah reflects a somewhat surrealistic picture of life in the Arab world, provoking his audience to question their own understanding of life in the Middle East.
One of the band’s most successful songs is a relatively new song called A’sheek. The band proves to demonstrate a new style of music without losing their signature sound. The song has a more pop feel to it, which is atypical for El Morabba3, but the blend of Arabic music, pop and electric guitars pushes musical boundaries and makes for an exciting sound.
Of course, pushing boundaries is not new for El Morabba3 - the music they created was one that few were familiar with - the idea of Arabic lyrics sung over an electric guitar. Eventually El-Morabba3 grew to be one of the most successful bands in Jordan. They later grew to find international success, playing around the world, in Belgium, United Arab Emirates, Egypt as well as many other countries.
Now fresh of a successful crowdfunding campaign to fund their sophomore album, there seems to be more excitement then ever about Amman’s talented trio. The group wanted their fans to help them rebel against the traditional commercial music industry and in order to help fund the production the production of their second album and allow them and the artists, independent record label, and managers that have been apart of their journey to benefit from their work and not the money hungry businessmen of commercial record labels.
A new released single, music video displayed below, allows us a bit of a sneak peak into what the new album could sound like.
A bit more electronic and experimental then the previous album. There’s something very Massive Attack-ish about this single, if you really wanted to compare it to something, but in all actuality there is something unique, fresh, and new about the singles sound that should be refreshing to music enthusiasts who are tired of the same rifts, beats, and hooks repeated over and over again in the almost unavoidable pop music that surrounds them
El Morabba3 create a refreshing sound in their music and one which challenges stereotypes of Arab music without betraying its roots. It is a band who are not afraid to explore new creative avenues at a time when youth in the Middle East are re-defining their own image and demanding to be heard. As the band said themselves: "El Morabba3 to us is the window in which we see things we want to express...being from a region that had seen a lot and still does every day. This window serves as our escape and our return all together".