AUDIO KULTUR ISSUE 08 NOV 2014 FREE
02 WORD FOR THE HERD
I
spent last month babbling about how now was the time “to decide upon either fucking off or getting your shit together.” In retrospect, I don’t think I really understood what “getting your shit together” actually meant and, furthermore, what the result of that decision would entail. At the time of writing, our YouTube debut is currently sitting at around 28,000 views. Now, I am well aware that this number pales in comparison to the 88,000,000 that Miley got on the last video she dropped or even to the 72,000 that “Sexy Myriam Klink Lingerie” has received over the last six months, but for us it’s more than we ever could’ve expected. Our street level distribution network has not only been set up, but now requires daily refills. Our launch party got rained out and hundreds of people called not only to ask when we would reschedule it for, but to actually express how disappointed they were. Overall, the response has been equal parts amazing and overwhelming. Upon finding out that the video had been picked up by the TV network LBCI, my exact words to my good friend and partner Ali Sayed were “I think we’re in a bit over our heads”. Our little DIY magazine had been thrust into the view of the masses, and it’s not really something I think any of us were entirely ready for. I mean, I sent the wrong files to print for fuck's sake (this is the cause of last month's doubleparagrahgate and numerous other stupid mistakes). Yeah, bare embarrassing to say the least. But what can you do? Well, first of all not send the wrong files to print. Check. We also worked around the clock to make sure this month we deliver the best issue to date, because for me, in a way, this is issue number one. If you want to pass judgement then start here, because it’s a representation of where things are moving - and they’re moving really fast. So read it, tweet it, love it or hate it. I couldn’t really care less as long as you’re talking about it. That’s blatantly a lie, I really hope you love it as much we do. And that’s a lot. Till next time, Tres
PUBLISHER
AK Publishing SAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Tres Colacion
ART DIRECTOR Alī El Sayed
ART ASSISTANT Emne Mroue
WRITERS
Jackson Allers Joseph Ataman Natalie Shooter
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Valentina Lola Vera
COMIC
Gab Ferneine
CONTACT
Got something to say? Write us at Junkmail@audiokultur.me Life is a pitch, but at least we want to pay you for it. Send your pitches to Editor@audiokultur.com Want a fresh shipment of Audio Kultur every month to your fine establishment? TheGuy@AudioKultur.com All advertising inquiries go to SellOut@AudioKultur.com audiokultur.com facebook.com/audiokultur issuu.com/audiokultur
TABLE OF CONTENTS 03
04. FEATURED ARTIST:
MR THING
10. FLASHBACKS
06. FEATURED ARTIST:
MARTIN BUTTRICH
& REVELATIONS
20. TUNEAGE 26. FEATURE SELECTOR: ZIAD NAWFAL
16. FEATURE:
THE OLD COLOSSUS
22. FEATURE:
AN INFINITE PROCESS
28. THE METROPOLIS(T)
30. FEATURE:
IT JUST AIN’T CRICKET
24. DAS KOMIC
04 FEATURED ARTIST
IT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF THING
From winning the DMC Team World Championship (twice) to dropping records in Beirut, we catch up with the legendary Mr.Thing
FEATURED ARTIST 05
M
r Thing has been DJing since before many of you were even born. The Briton, who scratched his first record way back in ‘87, rose to fame as a key member of the back-to-back DMC Team World Champions Scratch Perverts in 1999 and 2000. Not one to be content, he went on to produce remixes for an assortment of artists and has continued release mixtapes with vigor. We caught up with the former Scratch Pervert ahead of his debut Beirut gig with the Beirut Groove Collective at Yukunkun on November 1st.
AK: You were, of course, a member of the notorious Scratch Perverts. How did that come about and what was it like battling it out with one of the best crews of all time?
I loved the time I was with the Scratch Perverts, practising with them and everything else was so much fun. Basically it all came about from being in Mr Bongo’s record shop in London. Tony Vegas was working there and I used to see First Rate in there all the time, I didn’t know Prime Cuts until a bit later on but knew who he was from the DMCs. I saw Harry Love DJing around West London too and it all came together properly when we did a showcase all together at the shop. First Rate and I had already been doing DJ gigs together before then, he really put me on as we were from the same area in Kent - we only lived a few towns apart. It really sank in how crazy it was when we went to the ITF battle in Germany as a team and battled the Beat Junkies, that was a highlight for me. They won but it was such a good battle, so many good memories from then!
AK: A lot of people would describe you as a purest,
a true digger and DJ, But what do you think about the state of modern music? Are you listening to anything released recently? I like a few things I hear these days, but I don’t buy anywhere near as much new music as I used to - my taste has changed a lot over the years. I’m really not feeling a lot of the stuff on the radio, it does nothing for me but I can see the appeal and understand it. I listen
to some new stuff, major and indie labels to keep up, but I just buy the stuff that I like. I enjoyed the Statik Selektah album and the new Diamond D LP is good. I buy quite a bit of the new funk releases like the stuff on FNR, and always buy the Kon edits when they pop up too. I’m looking forward to the Premier and Royce Da 5’9” project as well, think that’s gonna be pretty special!
Some people can be rude, but then when you next meet them it can be a completely different situation and they’ll be super cool, so you don’t really know what went on when you met them previously! But generally I’ve been lucky with the other artists I’ve met, I’ve not had any major issues with anyone.
AK: Vinyl has made a huge comeback in recent years
have you heard about the city/scene? What are you expecting?
and websites like Discogs have played a big part in that. However, as a result prices have skyrocketed and a lot of music is now inaccessible. What do you think about the rise of these sites and their effect on crate digging? I’ve never had an ebay account but I have had my friend bid on pieces for me when they’ve come up cheap. Though a lot of prices go absolutely crazy for things that you can find cheaply if you know where to go! Rap 45s especially. I do like Discogs, but I like a bargain so I usually wait for cheaper copies. I like to hit the shops and flea markets whenever I can, especially if I’m out of the country and can look for records. But it can be frustrating when a shop doesn’t put prices on anything and then they check popsike or Discogs and try to charge you the absolute maximum for something that was sat on the floor and they probably weren’t bothered about. It’s happened a few times!
AK: You’ve released some pretty insane mixtapes.
What’s the process that you approach making tapes? What goes into it? When I’m doing the mixes, it first takes me a good month or so of preparation. I usually spend a couple of weeks getting all the records together, then I quite often get new ideas halfway through and end up starting from the beginning and changing the track listing altogether! Actually putting them together then takes me a couple of weeks - I like to make sure everything’s tight - and then I may spend another couple of days checking it over before anyone hears it! That’s why I don’t do them too often!
AK: And how does that process differ from playing live? Do you walk into shows with a kind of map of what you want to play in your head or do you just do everything on the fly?
I like to be prepared when I play out but not too much. I always keep an eye on the crowd to check what’s working and what’s not. I always have sections of mixes and little blends/links I may do but generally I put it together on the spot when I’m playing out - it keeps you on your toes!
AK: What's the most anti-social thing a fellow
DJ/MC can do? What or who's been your biggest disappointment?
AK: This is your first time coming to Beirut. What
My friend DJ Format and my girlfriend’s sister said it was really cool there so I’m looking forward to checking it all out! I have no idea what to expect - I’m excited!
AK: What do you like to do after a gig, barring an early morning flight?
Depends on how late it is. Quite often I’ll have a drink if I’m not driving, and mostly I’ll eat food haha! If there’s a DJ on after I like to see them as well. It totally depends on what’s happening!
AK: Describe an ideal day off. I tend to go record shopping on my own so it’s not very sociable! On proper days off I like to watch films or visit friends and family. If I can combine them all I love that!
CITY:
London, England
LABEL: BBE
WEBITE:
djmrthing.com
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
Mr. Thing - Changes [First World Records] YUNGUN & MR. ThingFORGET ME NOT [Silent Soundz] Mr. Thing & The Professional Human Beings - Nasty [Naked City Records] King Kapisi - Down with the King feat. Mr. Thing [Free Download] Jehst Ft Yungun & Mr. Thing - Sound Of The Drum [MSI Music/Super D] (Selected by DJ Spindle aka Ernesto)
06 FEATURED ARTIST
20 YEARS OF MARTIN BUTTRICH
We caught up with the man himself slapbang in the middle of his world tour
FEATURED ARTIST 07
T
wenty years on top of the game, Martin Buttrich is one of the most respected names in electronic music. The German producer has a back catalogue that few can match and, most importantly, has continued to push the envelope release after release. His live sets at überhaus and The Garten have immortalized his place as one of Beirut’s most anticipated bookings. We sat down to speak with him about his new label, @DJsComplaining and, of course, his twenty years in the business.
AK: Martin, it’s fair to say that you’ve become a bit
of a legend in Beirut after your last few gigs here. What did you think of the scene here? How did you enjoy your time in the capital? It seems to be a nice scene that is growing and open to deep house music. I had great fun when I was in Beirut and can't wait to come back .
AK: You recently reached the milestone of twenty
years producing. What have you learned from your time in the scene? What moments stand out for you throughout the years? What I learned is to never stop progressing. You must be patient, work hard and never give up! I've had so many great experiences over the years and I’m sure there will be many more to come. I can't point out a specific moment in the last twenty years, since on any day something can happen - especially living a life that involves creating, producing and performing music.
AK: You’ve relocated to LA. Why did you choose
that city? It seems these days that so many producers and DJs are making the jump to Berlin and other German cities, so why did you decide to go in the opposite direction? Well, I still have a studio in LA but I am only there for about three months a year. My home is now Barcelona. I love LA but it is on the other side of the world and too far from Europe to live there all year long. I'm originally from a town called Hannover an hour’s drive
from Berlin. I always thought that when I moved I'd rather try something that's far away. Out of ten friends of mine, I think nine have moved to Berlin. I guess I’d became part of the anti Berlin movement and wanted to try something different.
AK: Tell us a little about your new label.
those moments and from that point of view because that way a disappointment can turn into something positive.
AK: Can you share any advice with producers in the
Middle East looking to break into the scene? What can they do to stand out from the crowd?
There is no master plan for the label in terms of what I’ll release. Collaborator, my new album, will be released on Rhythm Assault, the label’s name. It will be a permanent playground. I want to use it as a platform to showcase new projects. I don’t want any boundaries but rather a home on which I can consistently release my music and other experiments.
With hard work, patience and a bit of luck pretty much everyone can make it. You have to believe in what you’re doing and you will unavoidably be recognized for the work you do.
AK: You are right in the middle of a pretty massive
I can’t be bothered to think about it. I do my thing and keep my eyes open. I work a lot and I show respect. This all keeps me confident and not too bothered about what other people think or say.
tour. How do you deal with playing so many gigs? What’s your life like on the road?
Life on the road has a lot of facets and it’s up to you to manage everything. It is exhausting and can be pretty lonely at times, but at the same time it’s exciting and a breath of fresh air. You learn a lot about life and people if you keep your mind open enough. Life goes up and sometimes down. It’s just a question of how you handle and digest what you experience. I know I have a pretty good life but there is always room for complaining.
AK: @DJsComplaining has been taking the piss for
a while now out of DJs and producers on the road. Do you think it’s warranted? If your life and the flow of your day, particularly on the road, is dependent on other people, then there is a chance things won't go as planned. That, as I already mentioned, can sometimes lead to unhappiness, and the result is complaining. This can be funny sometimes but also mean. If you make it public then you're in the line of fire.
AK: What's the most anti-social thing a fellow DJ can do? What or who's been your biggest disappointment over the years?
I haven’t thought about it and I’m not gonna start now. It’s dark matter. Disappointments happen in everyone's life, probably a few times. I try to stay open and not look back too much at moments that weren’t just sunshine and rainbows. I try to learn my lessons from
AK: How do you think you're perceived by others in the industry?
AK: If you weren't involved in music, what would you be doing?
Looking for a job.
CITY:
Barcelona, Spain Label: Rhythm Assault, Mobilee
WEBITE:
soundcloud.com/martinbuttrich facebook.com/martinbuttrich twitter.com/martinbuttrich
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
Mademoiselle (Martin Buttrich remix) - Yooj [Monique Musique] Around The Bay (Martin Buttrich remix) - Davide Squillace & Luca Bacchetti [Hideout] Groove Catcher (Martin Buttrich Catcher remix) - Marco Carola [M-nus] Back It Up - Martin Buttrich [Desolat] Mishima - Martin Buttrich & Davide Squillace [Desolat]
08 FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS
FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS A month of the hottest parties for your viewing pleasure
FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS 09
BPHOTOS018BY CARL HALAL
10 FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS
CPHOTOSU NXT SAT BY CARL HALAL
FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS 11
DECKS ON THE BEACH PHOTOS BY ZEINA SHAHIN
12 FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS
ELECTRIC SUNDOWN PHOTOS BY RYAN ABI & KRISTELL ROMANOS
FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS 13
GARDEN STATE PHOTOS BY CARL HALAL
14 FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS
THE GÄRTEN BY ÜBERHAUS PHOTOS BY VALENTINA LOLA VERA & ADHAM TEMZAH
FLASHBACKS & REVELATIONS 15
6TH SENSE PHOTOS BY ADHAM TEMZAH
16 FEATURE
THE OLD COLOSSUS
From Damascus basements to Lebanese jazz clubs, Syrian bands find refuge in Beirut By Natalie Shooter
FEATURE 17
B
eirut has always been the cultural capital of the Middle East; an intellectual center to where artists have flocked, finding sanctuary in its relative political and artistic freedom. Artists, for the most part, have always been able to express themselves openly and freely in Lebanon, whereas many other countries in the region still suffer from rigid state censorship.
Since the Syrian uprising began in 2011, an influx of Syrian musicians that fled the country have since found refuge in Beirut. The underground scene that never quite managed to take off in Syria, partly due to the regime’s harsh restrictions, has found an open climate in which to thrive in Lebanon. Music projects such as Hello, Psychaleppo! – which sees music producer Samer Saem Eldahr fuse Arab heritage music (tarab) with electronic beats – and Damascene oriental-rock band Tanjaret Daghet [“Pressure Pot”] are among the many to have taken root in Beirut, pushed forward with the opportunities the Lebanese music scene has to offer. “The underground scene [in Syria] was growing fast. There was a time when everyday a new project was formed,” says Anas Maghrebi, lead vocalist of the Syrian, post-rock band Khebez Dawle, who moved to Beirut in early 2013. “I think Syrians brought their originality, this toughness in the music to Lebanon, but in Syria all of it stayed underground in the basements. A lot of songs were written but there were no professional methods of coming up with the end product.”
Back in Damascus, Maghrebi’s first band, Ana, experimented with the idea of fusing Oriental vocals with post-rock instrumentals. But everything changed when their drummer, Rabia' Al-Ghazzi, a peaceful activist in the early days of the Syrian protests, was followed and then murdered on 25 May 2012. “This was the first event that made us think seriously about disbanding. At around the same time, our guitarist Bachi Darwish was also taken by the army for military service. The whole image became black for me. My dream band disbanded without ever having had the chance to perform in front of anyone,” Maghrebi says. The musician went back to his job at a local radio station, where he learned about music production and later released three songs online under the pseudonym Khebez Dawle [“Governmental Bread”]. After creating an online buzz, Ana bassist Muhammad Bazz got in touch and suggested he come to Beirut and turn the project into a band. “For me it wasn’t a joke. I want to stick to my beliefs, I wanna speak up, express... but I didn't want to die back then, I still have so many things to do in life,” the musician says. After moving to Beirut in early 2013, Maghrebi joined
forces with Bazz and keyboardist Hekmat Qassar, and they later heard from Ana guitarist Darwish. “We got a call from this old voice; ‘It’s Bachi. Come get me. I’m at Cola [Station].’ We didn’t imagine we’d hear from him again. In Syria when you go to the army, you die without knowing who killed you from the front or back. He’d fled the army and was in Beirut all dusty, with no papers.” A few days later Darwish joined Khebez Dawle and in early 2014 they asked drummer Danny Shukri of Tanjaret Daghet to record drums. He later came on board as well. The band received funding from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and the Arab Culture Resource and recorded their self-titled album, a concept album that tells the story of a young Syrian guy experiencing the events of the Arab Spring, particularly the Syrian uprising. In Tanjaret Daghet’s rehearsal room in a basement off Hamra Street, bassist Khaled Omran, drummer Danny Shukri and guitarist Tarek Ziad Khuluki sit around a small table dragging on cigarettes. Khuluki has recently chopped off his characteristic ponytail – “I realized I was hiding my problems behind it,” he
18 FEATURE
shrugs. Omran considers running home to shave his head before the band’s performance with Lebanese music legend Ziad Rahbani at the nearby jazz club, Blue Note, later that evening. “He always does this,” Shukri laughs. He considers something all week and then decides to do it ten minutes before a show.” Tanjaret Daghet started out as an improvised music project in Damascus after Omran and Shukri, who had met at the Damascus Music Conservatory, joined forces with Khuluki, a guitarist Omran knew from the rock and grunge scene. Omran was the first to leave Damascus for Beirut in 2011 and Khuluki followed shortly after. “I would either go to Belarus and wash dishes or come to Beirut and be a musician,” Khuluki says. After moving to Beirut, their sound evolved into Oriental-rock fused with elements of jazz with Arabic lyrics. Though both Omran and Shukri were experienced professional musicians and had worked with everyone from Ziad Rahbani to Zeid Hamdan, and Khuluki was well versed in the rock scene, producing an independent album in Syria still seemed out of reach. “In the Damascus music scene you can find a few musicians who play great and are trying to form a
band or make a project, but they don’t know about the business, so projects wouldn’t last long,” Shukri says. “It was really such a real underground scene. [In Syria] music is just something you can hear on the radio,” Khuluki says. “When we came to Beirut we decided to take things to another level; to find a producer and see how people get money to record an album, because in Syria you have to be rich to make an album.” Not long after moving to Beirut, the band met Lebanese musician and producer Raed el Khazen, or rather he met them while hearing them practice through the walls next to his studio. Soon he was on board and recorded and produced their debut album “180°” which they released in the summer of 2013. The album is at times dark and brooding and at others gently melodic with elements of jazz and Oriental melodies fused with rock and Arabic lyrics written by Omran. As with most bands coming out of Syria in the last few years, there’s always an assumption that the message is a reaction against the current war; it’s a stereotype Tanjaret Daghet seem exasperated with. “People always think that because we’re Syrian
[what we’re doing] is really related to politics and the situation. But this project was there before the war,” says Khuluki. “If you want to really get into the lyrics, they’re mainly about social issues and pressures that have been there for a long time,” Shukri continues. “Because it happened in a certain period of time, it’s easy to relate to what’s happening, but the ideas were there before.” Like many other young musicians who fled Syria over the last few years, Khairy Eibesh came to Beirut to escape compulsory military service. “Anyone who reaches 18 and has finished their studies has to go to military service. If you go you’ll either kill or be killed,” he says. The 23 year old rapper, also known as Watar, from Syrian hip hop duo LaTlateh, sits in his mini home studio, crammed into a small room in his top floor Achrafieh apartment. “In the beginning, the scene was just teenagers doing hip hop, having a good time. We launched the first hip hop album in Syria as Sham MCs seven years ago,” he says. He’s noticed the Syrian hip hop scene shoulder up to the region over the last few years with “a lot of new young MCs showing up with good quality lyrics, good skills and nice ideas.”
FEATURE 19
As the Arab Spring rose up around Syria, its hip hop scene became more politicized, reflecting the regional atmosphere. “We started to see that everything that’s going on is political, in Egypt, Tunisia or Iraq, and so [the music] changed automatically. Everything that was happening affected us.” Back in Syria, political hip hop was almost impossible to perform, with any critics of the regime putting themselves at serious risk. For Eibesh, moving to Beirut has meant being part of a freer hip hop movement. “We never performed anything political in Syria. One track we did was very clear and honest about our view of the regime and we had to hide from them for a short time,” he says. “Here it’s a lot easier. Maybe it doesn’t have as big an impact as it would have in Syria but you can go on stage and speak your mind.” The atmosphere of openness in Beirut has certainly been pivotal in helping a Syrian music scene reach its full potential in the city. “There’s a big process you have to go through in order to be approved to release your music, meaning the underground scene remained pretty narrow,” Maghrebi says. “If you publish any song against the [regime] you can’t [predict] what’s going to
happen to you. A lot of people got arrested or killed and didn’t carry weapons. They’d just made some song or something that got famous.” Though the hip hop scene has always had a certain fluidity between countries across the Arab world with the ease of collaborating on online tracks, the number of Syrian MCs now based in Beirut has made it ever more active. Eibesh is still buzzing from his concert “From my Eyes” at Radio Beirut on the 22nd October where he performed alongside a lineup of Beirut-based Syrian and Lebanese MCs including Sayyed Darwish, El Rass and Nasserdine Touffar. “We had collaborations before I moved here, but it’s been a good point for me being in Beirut because there are MCs coming from all over the region and audiences here,” he says. “It’s better for all of us from a music point of view. People have seen a lot of new things and have developed, and I’m one of them.” “Here in Lebanon if you take a look closer at the scene; it’s not just a Lebanese scene anymore,” Maghrebi says. “The two scenes have merged into one, into a hybrid. They’ve made this new brilliant, promising
hopeful scene,” says Maghrebi. “It’s more than a scene, it’s a movement. It’s about youth starting to speak up, expressing their hopes, fears and thoughts. I’m really glad that [we’re] a part of this.”
20 TUNEAGE
TUNEAGE CHYNO
FIGHT OR FLIGHT ISSRAR (SINGLE) RUPTURED SELF-RELEASED 15TH OCTOBER RADIO KVM
REMEMBER US
NTHNG LOBSTER THEREMIN 27TH OCTOBER
10TH OCTOBER
4/5 Syrian-Filipino rapper Chyno, born Nasser Shorbaji, may be better known for his exploits with hip hop troop FareeQ el Atrash, but his last two solo releases have garnered a new wave of attention. Off of the forthcoming debut album Music to Make You Feel at Home, ‘Fight or Flight’ is “dedicated to all Syrians, scattered all across the world.” The rhymes are clever: “Exile! ‘Get the fuck out’ This X-files. Skullies get knocked down” and “I think we need to fast. Can I please eat halal without you tryna put beef with that?”, deserve special mention. But it’s his flow that puts the track a cut above the rest. Small hip hop scenes have a tendency to become incestuous, flows and rhymes often take on the sound of the scene rather than of the individual MC. That’s simply not the case here. This is a record that is lyrically very close to home, but stylistically couldn’t be further away. We’ll fuck with that.
4.5/5 Sary Moussa has been performing his radiokvm since 2008, but ‘ISSRAR’ marks the self-taught producer’s first full length release. From the opening track, Navid, with its dark, almost brooding resonance, it’s clear that this is a big album. Not dissimilar to the way Burial opened his masterpiece ‘Untrue’, radiokvm uses the album's first track as a base, a palate cleanser of sorts. Each following track takes the listener further down the rabbit hole. Breeding Clones is a glitchy, techno influenced number. But for this review the Beirut born producer finds his groove in Six, the album’s halfway point. Where others tend to draw comparisons with Aphex Twin’s album ‘Syro’, for this reviewer it’s Burial who again comes to mind. The rhythm is somewhat lost in Alpha Apparatus - the first song on the album I’m tempted to skip. It returns, however, like a breath of fresh air in the track Silvershine. The album's final track, Hysteresis, leaves me longing for more and a repeat listen is immediately necessary. Buy it.
4/5 Raw seems to be a bit of a buzzword at the moment. “That record is so raw” or “mate, his/her sound is raw”, are phrases thrown around poorly lit dance floors quite casually these days. But London based nthng’s latest EP ‘Remember Us’ really is pretty fucking raw. Out on London based imprint and amazingly named Lobster Theremin, the record runs the paradox of sounding at once timeless and from the future. Across the three tracks, nthng seems to effortlessly avoid the most common pitfalls currently facing electronic music: over production, trend riding and ketamine induced nothingness. Instead, we have a record that is equal parts Chicago, Detroit and London, with a healthy balance of techno and house. Kind of how it used to be, but without sounding like some kind of nostalgic throwback. You probably won’t be hearing this one pop up in too many sets, but that’s only because this kid is way too far ahead of the rest of the pack.
TUNEAGE 21
ORBIT (GIVE IT UP) EP
APHELION
BOA / COLD
10TH NOVEMBER (BEATPORT) 23RD NOVEMBER (GENERAL)
3RD NOVEMBER
15TH DECEMBER
KRY WOLF MADTECH RECORDS
4/5 The Summer season may be long gone, but UK based duo Kry Wolf don’t really seem to give a shit. Orbit (Give it Up), their latest release on Kerri Chandler’s MadTech imprint, is an upbeat, jacking record in the best possible way. The opening cut sees the duo combine a crunchy rhythm with the kind of sub-bass tones they’re fast becoming known for. Murmuring vocals and some clever bells serve to create a sense of atmosphere not unlike Bristolian bass master Julio Bashmore. Church Road Shuffel follows, combining some swinging rhythms, sampled vocals and a chunky bass hook to drive it forward. This lighthearted combination is balanced out by some resonant pads and a wealth of quite raw stab hits. The release is capped off with a remix of Orbit (Give it Up) by duo South Royston - a great alternative to the original which garners praise of its own. A solid release.
VARIOUS ARTISTS TOKEN RECORDS 5/5 The briefest of looks over the Belgian label’s extensive back catalogue will tell you that all they do is techno and they do it a hell of a lot better than anyone else. Regardless of trends, including current ones, the Gent based label has stayed true to their form of ‘absolute techno’ and ‘A PHELION’ is a manifestation of this belief. This triple LP of exclusive material offers gems from label regulars to Blawan and Pariah’s massively hyped project Karenn. Oh and then there's new material from the likes of Surgeon, James Ruskin and Luke Slater (under his Planetary Assault Systems moniker). The result is a collection of 9 massive techno tunes that sound miles ahead of everything else. Stand out tracks come in the form of Karenn’s Pace Yourself, an incredibly dark slow roller, and Surgeon’s thirteen minute saga Fixed Action Pattern. Wow.
THE BUG VS EARTH NINJA TUNE 3.5/5 Kevin Martin aka Techno Animal aka Ice aka God aka Razor X aka King Midas Sound, oh and The Bug, is a producer who has been exploring, distorting and redefining electronic music over the last 20 years. Earth are essentially credited for laying the blueprint for what has become ‘ambient metal’. Two masters of their own genres. The result sounds just like you would imagine it to. Earth provides a signature guitar sound while The Bug’s drum programming and bass sounds add a level of heaviness that transcends each genre on its own. The same formula is utilized across both ‘Boa’ & ‘Cold’, but the results are each strong enough to stand on their own. This is a collaboration where each artist shines equally, a real rarity in electronic music.
22 FEATURE
AN INFINITE PROCESS
ISSRAR marks a turning point for Lebanese producer radiokvm By Jackson Allers
FEATURE 23
BEIRUT - Questions of authenticity seem to be at the heart of the debate surrounding new manifestations of independent music in the Middle East - and it's an internal rather than external discussion. Specific veins of criticism that exist in Lebanon among an elite cross-section of cultural observers is presented in a tired (though certainly relevant) debate around Orientalism and the degradation of authentic forms of Arabic music being created in a post-globalised society.
E
lectronic music producer Sary Moussa a.k.a. radiokvm released his debut album ‘ISSRAR’ (Ruptured) in a limited edition vinyl pressing in October. Audio Kultur's Jackson Allers sat down with him to discuss the making of the album, how he's evolved within the burgeoning Lebanese electronic music scene, and what he thinks of the notion of “authentic” Arabic music.
During the 8 years I've been documenting these musical trends and attempting to pose a framework of understanding for these musical forms, be they post-rock, post-punk, rap, folk, electronica, noise-core, experimental, improvisational, I’ve seen this binary debate of East versus West turned on its head by a brash set of electronic music producers who eschew the discourse as anachronistic, or at the very least dismissive of the realities on the ground. One of those producers is Sary Moussa a.k.a. radiokvm, whose first full length album ‘ISSRAR’ - a limited edition vinyl release distributed by Cargo Records (UK) and produced on the Lebanese independent label Ruptured - debuted in October. "This entire cultural debate - Lebanon as a crossroads between East and West - is uninteresting to me. It's a useless exercise," Moussa explained in June, as ‘ISSRAR’s test pressings had just been completed. "We're just here (in Beirut). We have influences. We know about music. We research. The fact that what we research is conditioned by our situation and our background makes us go somewhere with our music." radiokvm's journey into that "somewhere" began around 2002, when the electro-pop outfit Soap Kills was defining new possibilities of music production for a generation of post Civil War youth. Moussa's own self-admitted influences at the time leaned towards
rock and jazz, having taken up music lessons as a youngster. But the band format and the reliance on others to craft concepts of sound felt limiting to Moussa's growing sense of what was possible with production, even with no knowledge about how to produce formally. His drive then and now was not to mimic what was going on around him. "I wanted to make music and play, and for me that meant there were sounds that I wanted to make with the few instruments that I had." radiokvm began to look for obscure (by Lebanese standards) multi track recorders, or software interfaces that could accommodate his production needs. "From this point on I started plugging in my guitar and keyboards that I’d borrow from friends, and commenced playing." With limited knowledge and understanding about what to do with his music, he put his first self-produced tracks on MySpace. This was 2008, and Moussa had already come up with the name radiokvm. Moussa then began exploring what he could do in a live setting, and this coincided with the time when another young musician and fledgling producer, Faysal Bibi, was making a transition away from the band format of his late 1990s rock days in Beirut and into solo electronic music production. As Bibi explained, in 2007 and early 2008 he was at a loss to find like minded producers in Lebanon who were attracted by this new world of bedroom or home studio production setups. "Eventually, I came across a musician who was calling himself radiokvm. And he had like 3 songs recorded on MySpace which were beautiful - at least one was - re-renditions of classic Arabic folklore made into trip-hop. I was like, ‘this is great’, and the sound is so fresh! I emailed him and
24 FEATURE
he responded positively to my inquiries. So we met up. This was the middle of 2008 and then we started hanging out." This meetup led to the formation of a friendship in production and live performance that continues today. The two first began sharing their own work with each other in listening sessions and later went on to comix each other’s sounds and discover production techniques together. In effect, they became their own best teachers. "As we developed with one other, he'd (Moussa) ask questions like, ‘Oh, what's this midi-controller you're using?’ He would go get one, and I'd be like, ‘What's this software you're using?’ and then I'd go get it. ‘What's this sample kit you're using?’ ‘What's this and that?’ ‘How are you composing?’ ‘Here's how I'm doing it.’ We didn't have studio monitors. We had crappy little speakers at home. We learned about sound together. Then we wanted to do live gigs!" Bibi, also known by his producer name OkyDoky, and radiokvm started digging into their mutual DIY philosophies and experimenting with different hardware and software setups. From 2008 to 2010, the two developed a decent local following, playing wild semi-improvisational sets, twisting knobs, pushing pads, and tweaking effects-laden sounds through various samplers at local digs like the basement of Dany's pub in Hamra and the now defunct Club Social in Gemmayzeh.
By 2009, radiokvm and OkyDoky began attracting the attention of local producers like Jawad Nawfal a.k.a. Munma, one of Beirut's most senior electronic music producers and a mainstay on his brother Ziad Nawfal's Ruptured imprint, founded in 2008. And there were others too, such as Jad Atoui, younger brother of Paris-based electronic music composer, Tarek Atoui, and Hadi Saleh, founder and project manager of the Lebanese non-for-profit Acousmatik System that began in 2009 to introduce electronic and experimental music production to uninitiated Lebanese audiences. The pair did their first international gig in 2010 at The Real Fest in Edinburgh, and later began selfpublishing demos of their live recordings, including a 2010 release, recorded over the course of a year that also featured support work from local rapper AA the Preacherman. The recording showcased both Bibi's and Moussa's growing sense of song structure, arrangement and use of sampling. But it also began to distinguish the production techniques of the two artists, further prompted by Bibi's departure to France for a job opportunity at a small university town teaching palaeontology and evolutionary theory (Bibi is a palaeontologist by profession). Whereas OkyDoky's production process was geared towards duplicating his sounds during live performances, radiokvm's was more about his obsession with sound. "Shortly after he (Bibi) left, I realised that my live show had to change so I started building a new live setup and using different DAWs
(digital audio workstations) for both production and live shows which mainly revolved around my computer and some midi-controllers," radiokvm told Audio Kultur. So from 2010 onwards, radiokvm began changing the way he wrote music, focusing more, he said, on "hardware machines and looping," which he decided to bring to the gigs. All along, the computer was the main tool he used to control the interaction between his production/performance software Ableton Live and his growing collection of hardware elements like his Korg ES-1 drum machine sampler, his 16-channel Waldorf Blofeld synthesiser, and his vintage 1976 Roland SH-1 analog synthesiser. Moussa is as much a fan of producing music as he is of the technology that helps create the soundscapes that have characterised his work, particularly over the last 4 years. Moussa's recent musical collaborations have included work with Jad Atoui and multi-instrumentalist and all-around hardware, software and analog synthesiser geek, Liliane Chlela. His recent recorded collaborations include a remix of the song Tkhayal/ Conceive off of the 2012 debut album release of Lebanese rapper El Rass, produced by Munma, and a remix of a song off of Munma's ‘No Apologies’ CD (2013) on Syrphe records, the music platform of Belgian-born, Berlin-based producer CeDrik. In the lead up to radiokvm's debut release ‘ISSRAR’, he solo released Infinite Moment of Composure on the album ‘Turbulence’ (Syrphe, 2012), composed music
FEATURE 25
for short films, theatre, and dance performances such as Ali Chahrour's Fatmeh, and provided a notable remix on OkyDoky's phenomenal 2013 debut 16 track full length ‘Boomboxx’. The track, Lake Vostok, took on a decidedly more ambient electronic feel - a contrast to the electro-rap homage that characterises OkyDoky's original songwriting for the album. More of an EP than a full length (6 tracks), radiokvm's ‘ISSRAR’ takes us on a cinematic ride through his own evolution as a producer. Beginning with the album opener Navid, which is an ambient, more sound focused traipse around his production tools, we hear the clear influence of American avant-garde composer La Monte Young. But as the album progresses, we hear a more conscious nod to the audience, or at least to a more consumable sense of what the audience would want with tracks like Breeding Clones, Six, and Hysteresis, showcasing Moussa's loop music, techno (tm404, Karl O'Connor), Birmingham techno, Krautrock and dubstep influences. Explaining his production process, he says "I wanted to move away from the computer in order to escape the rigidity of the fully written track. For this album, I would have a 50 minute recording session in real time, relying more on my hardware than on my computer multi-track it and then go in later and chop the tracks in order to turn them each into tracks of between 4 and 7 minutes - maintaining the essence of what I had done originally." As a result, and as evidenced by his album release
gig at the Beirut Art Center on the 15th of October, radiokvm's recorded material is impossible to duplicate in a live setting. "I can try to put the track or the driving force of a track forward in a live setup, and then do another setup around it with drums or keys," but similar to his experiments with patching in and creating sounds on his analog synthesizers, each and every session is finite and gone forever if not recorded. As with the ever-changing nature of Moussa's studio setup, he adheres to the idea of an evolving identity as an artist living and producing music in the Arab world. He is optimistic that the types of music being produced in the region at the moment are not bound by the conventions of identity. But he's happy to be the one to break open the mold in this regard. "How can the music that we create here be anything but Lebanese music? Whether it's techno, hiphop, dubstep or post-rock, if the music is coming from someone who's from this culture - coming from someone who does music in his or her own way – isn't it Lebane se? I mean, I think we should just accept this and do whatever we want artistically!"
26 FEATURED ARTIST
RUPTURED RHYTHMS
From civil war era mixtapes to over twenty years on air, AK sits down with Ziad Nawfal
FEATURED ARTIST 27
AK: You grew up on new wave and the new romantic
movement. Ruptured puts out more of an experimental sound. How did you end up on the more experimental, electronic side of things?
Z
iad Nawfal has been a curator of music since Beirut was divided between East and West. His radio show has been a platform on the countries national broadcaster for over twenty years and since 2008 he has been the head of the Ruptured imprint. We sat down to discuss everything from his career highlights to the difficulty of running a small label in an even smaller scene.
AK: From making mixtapes during the civil war to most recently releasing radiokvm’s debut on your own label, it must have been quite the ride. Let’s start with your top 5 highlights along the way.
- Attending the Art.Core events in downtown Beirut in the early 2000s. - Going up with Lebanese rock band Scrambled Eggs to a studio in Ballouneh, during the war of 2006, to record a set of demos which would become their EP 'Happy Together Filthy Forever'. - Organizing Lebanese electronic artist Munma's first concert at The Basement in Beirut in 2006. - Releasing the first volume of The Ruptured Sessions radio compilation series in a tiny Beirut restaurant in 2009. - Speaking about experimental music in Lebanon alongside my colleague Sharif Sehnaoui at the 2010 Mazaj Festival in London.
AK: You’ve had your radio show for over 20 years now.
With the advent of technologies and the decline in quality, the radio is no longer seen as a place to discover new music. What pushes you to keep on going? What is it about the radio as a medium that you love? I love the idea that the radio and my programs are sharing platforms. That people might actually be out there listening. That I'm sending new music out into the void, not knowing if it's being listened to or not. It's exhilarating. Whenever I get reactions to my radio programs, it fills me with incredible satisfaction. The satisfaction of passing something on to others.
I started listening to more experimental and electronic music on my own. Through radio programs, listening sessions with friends in Beirut and abroad, reading reviews in magazines, and attending concerts - most notably the Irtijal Festival in Lebanon. My music tastes shifted, expanded and grew larger with time. In my radio programs and DJ sets, for example, I try not to restrict myself to a particular genre, but rather to encompass as much interesting music as I can, as much as the curious ear is willing to accept.
AK: Ruptured is a self-financed label which puts out
“niche” music. Is it difficult to keep the label going, both financially and in terms of putting out quality music? Yes it definitely is. There's a small market and an even smaller audience for this type of music and product. And with time, it's becoming harder and harder to get people interested in attending concerts and performances. Prior to the launch of the radiokvm LP, the last few events Ruptured organized had generated very little interest or income. It's tough to keep going under these circumstances. But we receive a lot of encouragement from local colleagues and promoters, and we are lucky enough to have an open-minded distributor in the UK that backs our projects.
AK: Beirut has a relatively small scene when it comes to
people actually making music. This can make it very difficult to establish a culture of criticism. Do you think that artists and journalists are afraid of criticizing their peers openly? If so do you think that this is detrimental to the growth of musicians? You are perfectly right. Journalists do have a tough time criticizing musicians, but also filmmakers, video artists, performance artists, etc. The phenomenon is not restricted to music. The problem has more to do with the fact that we live in a small city, a small country, a small society, and therefore people are afraid of hurting other people's feelings and of it getting back at them in some way. Consequently, everyone (I'm generalizing a bit) pats everyone else on the back, and there is no real progression or development that can be acquired from that process. On the other end of the spectrum, artists say they want your opinion, but when this opinion displeases them they get offended. It's a strange process.
AK: Club culture and electronic dance music have really
hit new heights in the last few years. What is your opinion on the recent rise in popularity? Do you feel that Beirut is benefiting from the new wave of DJs and producers invited to play at clubs and parties?
I'm not sure how to answer this question, frankly. Yes there are some exceptional foreign DJs being brought to Beirut. But I'm not sure to what extent these foreign DJs’ gigs actually affect the output of our local producers (musicians or DJs). I’m actually curious to hear their answer to this question. I do know though that whenever electronic musicians are brought to Beirut (Shackleton, Miles, Phill Niblock, Charles Cohen, etc.), it benefits local artists in that they derive inspiration from the performances of these older and more experienced musicians.
AK: The label's latest release, radiokvm’s ISSRAR, was
dropped on vinyl. Why did you choose to release it on the format and do you plan to release more records on wax? How has the reception been so far? We opted for vinyl because we felt the decline in the CD market had finally hit Lebanon and had started affecting music sales to a large extent. We also felt that the type of electronic music produced by Ruptured would benefit greatly in terms of quality from vinyl. The reception to both the album and the concert that accompanied its release was extremely positive and encouraging. There are plans for two more concerts by radiokvm before the end of the year, in two small venues... There are also plans for a vinyl release by Munma in 2015, consisting exclusively of new material and collaborations.
AK: What are you listening to right now in terms of new
music? Who are a few artists that you feel are really putting out quality productions? In terms of international music, I’m listening to the latest releases by Juana Molina, Damien Jurado, Perfume Genius, Liars, Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wild Beasts, The Antlers, Aphex Twin, Hamilton Leithauser, Neneh Cherry, Timber Timbre, and reissues from Sonny Sharrock and Don Cherry. As for local artists, I like the work of Jad Mroué (Funny Death), the collaboration between rapper / slam poet El Rass and electronic producer Munma, the recent releases by electronic artists Morphosis, OkyDoky, and Jad Atoui, from folk singers Youmna Saba, Charlie Rayne and Ramly, and from guitarists Charbel Haber and Fadi Tabbal’s solo stuff. And I cannot wait to hear the new albums from Who Killed Bruce Lee and Postcards!
CITY:
Beirut, Lebanon
LABEL:
Ruptured
WEBITE:
rupturedonline.com
28 METROPOLIS(T)
THE METROPOLIS(T) HOJE EU QUERO VOLTAR SOZINHO - THE WAY HE LOOKS BY DANIEL RIBEIRO BRAZIL 2014, 95 MIN PORTUGUESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
I
t is a fact that nothing makes you both better looking and more intelligent than an extensive knowledge of arthouse cinema. Nothing. So with the collective sex lives of our entire readership in mind, we’ve partnered up with the good people at Metropolis to help increase your right swipe rate on Tinder. Each month you will find a selection of films that you can watch on the big screen and then casually drop into conversation to make people think you are really, really cultured. You’re welcome.
Leonardo is a teenage dude. That inevitably makes this complicated (and fun to watch). He’s mostly concerned with gaining his independence from his overprotective parents and finding someone to snog for the first time. This is all made even more complicated due to the fact that Leo’s best friend is Giovanna and I think by this point you can see where this is going. Except you’re wrong (maybe). Anyway, everything goes bonkers when the next man Gabriel shows up. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you Leo is fucking blind. How’s that for a plot twist?
METROPOLIS(T) 29
Written and directed by Pablo Berger, Blancanieves is a reinterpretation of the Brothers Grimm classic food poisoning saga “Snow White”. Berger flips shit around by moving the story from some German forest to 1920’s Andalusia. He also takes the liberty of shooting the entire thing in black and white and making it silent. It’s a self described “love letter to European silent cinema” and is, aesthetically, pretty damn impressive. Talkies are so mainstream.
BLANCANIEVES -BYSNOW WHITE PABLO BERGER SPAIN 2012, 104 MIN SILENT
The Embassy of Spain in Lebanon and the Cervantes Institute in collaboration with the Metropolis Association and the Embassies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela and the consulates of El Salvador, Portugal and Peru, are coming together to put on the 5th edition of the Ibero-American Film Festival Otras Miradas | Other Views. Now try saying that 5 times, fast. The latest incarnate is running from the 30th October to the 8th November and features 13 films which tackle the cultural identity of the Ibero-American world.
JUEVES | THURSDAY 30 OCT
19:30 Mexico: La Cebra | Fernando J. León (2012, 94min)
VIERNES | FRIDAY 31 OCT
19.30 Brasil: Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho | Daniel Ribeiro (2014, 95min) 21:30 Portugal: O grande Kilapy | Zézé Gamboa (2012, 100min)
Alright try to keep up. Dany is 16 and lives in Crete. His mum dies and so he heads to Athens to link up with his older brother Odysseas. Now the dead mum is Albanian and their dad is Greek, but they’ve never even met the dude. The two brothers decide it’s time to meet dad and they out to Thessaloniki to find him. Along the way there’s some casual Greek racism and a really big singing contest. Think Slumdog Millionaire meets Stand By Me and then the two of them go on holiday in Greece. Watch it.
VINO PARA ROBAR - TO FOOL A THIEF BY ARIEL WINOGRAD
ARGENTINA 2013, 105 MIN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
SÁBADO | SATURDAY 1 NOV
19.30 Cuba: Kangamba | Rogelio Paris (2008, 94min) 21:30 Peru: Bolero de noche | Eduardo Mendoza (2011, 96min)
DOMINGO | SUNDAY 2 NOV
19.30 Colombia: El Viaje del acordeón | Rey Sagbini / Andrew Tucker (2013, 79min)
LUNES | MONDAY 3 NOV
19.30 Paraguay: Che Pykasumi | Ermes Medina Valiente (2011, 80 min)
MARTES | TUESDAY 4 NOV
19.30 Uruguay: El ingeniero | Diego Arsuaga (2012, 90 min)
MIÉRCOLES | WEDNESDAY 5 NOV
19.30 Spain: Blancanieves | Pablo Berger (2012, 104 min)
JUEVES | THURSDAY 6 NOV
19.30 Venezuela: El manzano azul | Olegario Barrera (2012, 98min)
VIERNES | FRIDAY 7 NOV
19.30 Argentina: Vino para robar | Ariel Winograd (2013, 105min) 21:30 Salvador: Cuatro puntos cardinales | Javier Kafie (2014, 55 min)
SABÁDO | SATURDAY 8 NOV
19.30 Chile: Dawson Isla 10 | Miguel Littin (2009, 100min)
30 FEATURE
IT AIN'T JUST CRICKETT The headline says it all, but if you’re keen read on... By: Joseph Ataman
FEATURE 31
F
ernando's not the kind of guy I meet every day. With three kids, a self-declared obsession with all things cricket and minimal interest in Beirut's nightlife, he's not like many people I know. But as we sat talking in one of Achrafieh’s cafes, it was none of these dissimilarities that attracted the stares from other customers.
Fernando is a migrant worker. Tens of thousands that Beirut could not live without, he and his compatriots sweep our roads, scrub our floors and stack our shelves. Largely out of (willful) sight and always out of mind, it's an uncomfortable truth for many that they are Beirut's hidden lifeblood. The surprise of those seeing a Sri Lankan migrant and a Westerner sitting together in a Beirut cafe was hardly unexpected.
A FAMILY FAR FROM HOME As a foreigner in Lebanon, most days I'm asked why I'm here. It's not a question people often ask Fernando but his answer is simple: the money. Which is ironic given that working in an office building and holding down two cleaning jobs he makes a mere $5,400 a year, a pittance by almost any standard. With the salary he earns working six days a week, every week of the year, he can house his wife and children in Sri Lanka, he can send them to school and give them a life he could only have dreamed of. But for migrants like him, the price of providing for family is costly, and cruel. While he speaks to his children every morning on the phone, Fernando only sees them for one month out of every thirty six, just once every three years.
Several thousand kilometres may separate him and his children, but living in Beirut Fernando is far from having no family. Lebanon's south Asian workers are bound together by more than just the hardships they endure. For them, while the law may be Lebanese, cricket is most definitely king. Fernando makes his priorities crystal clear, "You know, the cricket is the second best thing in my week. The first is to speak to my kids every day, to see how they're doing, and the second is to play cricket. That's it, completely." Come rain, come shine, for Fernando and his 'guys' Sunday means only one thing - cricket. He laughs to himself, "We're crazy about it. In winter the sky is totally black and we're there. Sometimes it starts raining, so we stay, we hide under the trees. We're like forty plus years old and we're acting like teenagers." For close to seventeen years now Sri Lankan migrants have gathered together in a dusty car park for Sunday cricket. A 'gentleman's game' it may be, but for these guys car park cricket is every bit as serious as the world's largest tournaments. With over twenty teams now playing, games aren't a casual knock-about. After a loss, Fernando's teammates can't sleep. These matches are the centre of a community, a source of pride and status.
THE MOST LEVEL OF PLAYING FIELDS Sundays see friends and families come to watch their teams. Birthdays, marriages and festivals are celebrated by the boundary walls, taking up precious pitch space. But for Fernando this is what car park cricket is really about: community and home. "When I play cricket it's totally like I’m living in Sri Lanka," he says. Beirut's cricketing community took an unusual turn when two years ago a young Englishman walked past the steel gates that hide the city's most popular cricketing venue. Raised on a school diet of Latin verbs and cricket practice, William, a high school teacher, was drawn to the sport as he had never imagined it before. Within months Lebanon had its first western cricket club, St. George's, and soon after, its first international tournament. At organised events you would find food stalls with south Asian delicacies, a DJ spinning Sri Lankan beats and a troupe of drummers bringing a taste of the subcontinent to the backstreets of Beirut. William saw these Sundays as a unique chance for new friendships and communities to be born, saying that "There are a lot of migrant events here, but they're run
32 FEATURE
by migrants, for migrants. This is one of the few events in Beirut that's brought everyone, expats, locals and migrants together on a level cultural playing field."
that there was no chance for Monot's migrant workers to receive the invaluable international attention they desperately sought.
Several successful events saw word of the tournaments spread and crowds grow. And it wasn't just a brotherhood of sportsmen; three women's teams now compete and are more than a match for their international opponents. From the humblest of beginnings, car park cricket had hit the big-time. With teams of expats, support from embassies, charities, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and even a video crew from the world's official cricketing council, cricket had brought the world into the lives of Fernando's cricketers.
AN UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTION
The pitch may have been rough, the talent raw, but a Monot car park provided the most level of playing fields for Beirut's forgotten workers. But hopes for empowerment, friendship and community were short-lived. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in a country where it doesn't take much searching to find examples of migrants being marginalised, the tournament was shut down. Having organised wide-reaching international support for their match, William and the organisers set about trying to win over the car park's owners. Weeks later, they had their answer. Emails from the owners' lawyers threatened legal action against "trespassing" if anyone tried to use the site. It was clear
With everyone I spoke to, the same question seemed to burn through every conversation. If this tournament with its international coverage had been solely for Beirut's blossoming expatriate community, a team of British batsmen or sporting South Africans, would the event have been cancelled? On this point I had no answer from the lawyers. The first hint of questions along racial lines brought threats of libel and the strong-arm tactics that perhaps any legal representative worth their salt should master. But some might say that often no answer is the most telling. But the legal minds facing down this seemingly sinister sports match were adamant on one point. For years their clients had allowed informal gatherings to take place on this apparently sacred patch of asphalt, enabling migrants to "spend time together and even to play cricket" - Arab hospitality at its finest. Their 'policy' of allowing no formally organised events on their land was repeatedly emphasised to me, but just months ago the car park had been used for events in Monot's first 'car-free day'. Of course, as owners of private land, they are firmly within their rights to deny its use to whomever they please. Their lawyer eventually insisted to me on the phone that, provided there would be no 'market place' or stalls,
the event could go ahead for one final time. However, this didn't match at all with the account from the event's organisers. William described efforts to get permission as a "wild goose chase". In an email to the lawyers he apologised for planning the event without prior permission. "I thought that with the International Cricketing Council involved, with the British embassy involved, with the ILO involved, there was no possible way for the owners to say no." It was a judgement that could cost Beirut's migrant workers dearly. But perhaps the most galling aspect of the whole affair was the ILO's abandonment of the event once it ran into difficulty. The ILO representative I spoke to was cagey about the organisation being implicated in any trouble over the event's organisation. They also refused to comment publicly on their involvement - surely not their proudest hour standing up for workers' rights. Ultimately, it is Fernando's cricketers who have to suffer the real consequences of this international fracas. With the tournament cancelled, gone is the opportunity for the car park's owners to enjoy some invaluable publicity, but more painful is the loss the cricketers may have to endure. Fernando has played in underground building sites and abandoned army bases but the loss of their weekly cricket ground would be almost too much to bear, "They cancel the tournament, fine. But all we need is for them to let us play." He added, "Those owners, I'm sure, don't have any idea what we are feeling, how much they give us, how much they are helping us. It's not a physical thing but is so important for us - for our families back home
FEATURE 33
to know we are happy." But in the face of crushing disappointment, Fernando's humility was astonishing, "I am not angry with them at all, if they say don't play, I don't blame." It is a viewpoint common among the migrant workers and one that William struggles to understand, "It should be a basic human right that you don't work seven days a week. There's this weird dynamic where they think that 'we're really lucky', they feel they're being treated really nicely by being given this opportunity to play cricket." William refuses to let this put an end to cricket in Beirut but it is telling of the difficulties they face that the community'smost recent tournament was relocated to Broumana. Hopefully this won't be a permanent exile. For Fernando, fighting the attitudes of Lebanese society was futile. "If we argue, we're always on the losing side" Fernando says, "We can't be angry, we can't argue." But this battle against prejudice was supposed to be at the centre of the day's events.
THE REAL BATTLE This tournament would have celebrated the entire migrant community in Beirut. The charity Souk el Tayeb had planned to cater for the event, with the migrant workers it supports preparing their own traditional dishes. Jihane, one of the charity's coordinators spoke of the importance of events that cut through social divides. "There are very bad reputations about refugees and migrants here in Lebanon, we try to show them as normal human beings through the their own traditional food they cook."
But prejudice has always dogged their work in Lebanon, "The first time we set up stalls, the first customers scorned, "I'll take some food for my maid, not for me.� But since then we have seen so much change." For Jihane, food is just as powerful a medium as sport, "People fall in love with their food. When you start discussing food, real understanding starts." Last Sunday I went along to see Beirut's only “cricket pitch� for myself. Just metres away from the car park, in the church of St. Joseph, a prayer rally was being held for migrant workers from across Beirut. Prayers were said and hymns were sung but I couldn't help wonder if much would change for them. For the international bodies involved, this tournament was all about breaking down social and cultural barriers. William was one of the first Brits that any of the players had ever met. Kind and warm-hearted, he broke down all images of the stiff upper-lipped British colonisers that Fernando had grown up with. But sadly, it will be a long while before migrant workers are seen in a new light. As long as migrants clean our toilets and scrub our floors, treated as mere subservient shadows, prejudice will continue to hang over them. Standing in the car park, my umbrella collapsing under the weight of the rain and not a soul in sight, the scene was pretty desolate. But as much as I felt down about my Sunday morning, I knew that across the city there were dozens of men and women feeling far more depressed by the first of this winter's storms. For Sunday meant cricket, and no matter what the lawyers said, rain had stopped play.
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