OMAR SOULEYMAN

WENU WENU (Domino)

16/20

Omar Souleyman is undeniably the Middle East’s biggest pop star. Since his electrification of Syrian music in 1994, Souleyman has broadcast his amalgamation of traditional Syrian Dabke, Iraqi Choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles at innumerable weddings throughout the world. Accumulating over 750,000 tapes of his work, it made sense for him to record a studio album.

Enlisting Kieran Hebden to adapt his chaotic sound to Western ears –to coincide with his enduring focus on championing the Arabic sound worldwide – you’re able to directly pinpoint Hebden’s exaggerated sonic reference points. In comparison to his more organic live recordings, Wenu Wenu strikes through strictly defined layers, buffed up synths are lifted to carry disorientating acidic melodies, making for feverish semi-sincere dancefloor killers. From universal notions of affection and longing – the title track tells of a lost love who “kills with her beautiful eyes” – to more weighty, less applicable cultural tenets (“I don’t want to get married to my cousin, he’s like my brother”), the English translation of Wenu Wenu identifies overarching themes of romance, religion and sacrifice. Tender love songs endorsed through wildly colourful techno with dizzying production, Souleyman’s debut studio album is both an emotional roller coaster and a powerfully evocative slice of heritage that is long overdue.

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Words: Anna Tehabsim