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Review Summary: A year in Beirut in eight minutes: local extortion, Israeli war crimes, and fiery punk solidarity Formed early last year and cemented through a series of nights at the Beirut underground fixture Dajjeh, Ta2reeban have wasted no time in proving themselves instrumental to the emerging Lebanese punk scene — and if you doubt the spring in their step, get yourself acquainted with their debut EP. The appeal and attitude at play here are obvious from the first: do we take the title Sa7eb al motor yastanad 3leikon (translated roughly as The Generator Owner is Living Off Your Back) as a specific crit of the extortionate generator barons who power entire Beirut neighbourhoods in the absence of state infrastructure, or an all-purpose excuse for solidarity in rage? The trio cater generously to either reading, matching their vitriolic outpourings against Israeli war crimes and the Lebanese economic crisis with enough frenzied abandon to tide over anyone looking for a familiar hardcore kick. They're clearly engaged with the form creatively, packing enough into each track for the label one-minute hardcore banger to endorse their focused songwriting as much as their breakneck pacing. Each track boasts its own distinctions as such: although this thing is very much one incensed barnburner after another, there's no mistaking the anti-Israel uproar of "2tiilet aTfaal" (Child Killers; track #3) with the hooky motorik grooves of "shruuT w a7kaam" (Terms of Service; Track #5) or "sina jadiida" (New Year; track #6)'s testy, tom-heavy seethe. The band's knack for bringing a creative twist to familiar barnburners is felt best on the closer "bt3arfuu" (You Know), which kicks off in a series of jagged rhythms and splintering dissonance before going the kind of distance that might have extended well beyond its ninety-second runtime. The band's spartan approach to songwriting lends itself well to ideas this rich; nothing here comes close to overstaying its welcome, and it finds a steady constant in the band's performances, a meaty halfway between pure sweat and obvious proficiency. If the EP finds itself a little undersold by a production job that sacrifices band-in-a-room grit for clean, overly distinct mixes of individual instruments, the main takeaway is still an invitation to a killer live show. I'd be there.
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Album Rating: 4.5
This is the reason punk exists, not that corporate pop punk cope shit.
My AOTY for 2024 was a political Punk banger out of Myanmar by a band called Cacerlazo.
https://cacerolazo.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-of-anger-and-dissent
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
this is awesome
| | | i listend to whole thing on toilet, nice
| | | As someone who lived in Lebanon around the time the economic crisis really began to kick into gear, thank you for highlighting something like this
Fantastic review for this short EP
| | | Album Rating: 3.8
thanks gang, great to see people digging this — will hit that Cacerlazo album asap
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
this is sickkkkkkk
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
bro what is this album title lol
| | | Album Rating: 3.8
https://www.akeyesdance.com/a-brief-guide-to-arabic-transliteration/
| | | all false, al assad dust, wish bnjamin recovery
| | | zorn string quartets, whoa
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Ya this is some solid shit. Def gonna have to keep these guys on my radar
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
This fucking slaps, thanks for sharing, never would have found them otherwise
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Shall check my guy
Definitely could use a lil more punk with actual grit and good reasoning to back it
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Google translate turns صاحب الموتور بيستند عليكن into "the motor owner is counting on you".
Is what you've done the Arabic equivalent of turning 谢谢 into "xiexie" instead of "thank you"?
(Genuinely curious, I grew up around a lot of Arabic people (went to school in Dearborn, MI) and haven't seen this alienesque dialect before.)
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Either way, this does indeed slap
| | | Album Rating: 3.8
yep, the title is transliterated rather than translated, it follows the SMS convention rather than more academic standards because there's a huge gap between written and spoken Arabic generally, and because it's seen as a way to protect Lebanese regional identity against the undesired 'official' standard of a written form no one expresses themselves in naturally — or that's as I understand it anyway, may have misrepresented some of the complexity there
the translation in the rev tries to use an English idiom close to the literal sense of the Arabic — the sense here is that the motor in question is a neighbourhood generator, and as for the owner, *you're paying his bills*
the only reason any of this apart from the band name (which is as given) is transliterated at all is bc sput wouldn't process Arabic - would have left it as was and provided translations and track numbers otherwise, seems to defeat the point of the release formatting to localise it unnecessarily. both translation are transliteration are through my pal in beirut, but he gave me the rundown of what was at play
glad to see you digging anyhow
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
There was a time long ago when I recognized certain strings of Arabic characters and could even muster a basic understanding of certain signage around campus simply from constant exposure. Whatever nuggets of knowledge were once there are long gone now; however, one of the, like, three friendships I managed to maintain from college well into adulthood is with a Chaldean guy who still constantly informs me of useful Arabic phrases but all I've managed to retain these days is "wallah" and "Ma akhbarak" lmao.
Language does fascinate me, though.
| | | by t will of *hashem, may palstinians find refugee, knew it would happen
sure *mgauze wouldn’t b mad, cn’t arm children ever
| | | peace among israel & arabs
| | | This was awesome
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