Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Musicians from the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra Orientalize Hip Hop on British TV

The program is Later... with Jools Holland, a late night music television show on BBC2, and the day was yesterday.

Musicians from the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra made the appearance on the show, as reported today by Alex Young of the American music publication Consequence of Sound, and performed "White Flag" with British band Gorillaz. White Flag is the third song in the newly released album by Gorillaz, Plastic Beach. In the album, the song is listed as "White Flag (Feat. Bashy, Kano And The National Orchestra For Arabic Music)"

Without further ado, here is "White Flag":



During the live performance, a video of a whirling dervish was showing with Arabic-language phrases that the computers at BBC2 could not display correctly! The words were written from left to right in disconnected letters. The phrases meant to say the following:

Ana Lastu Hatha أنا لست هذا (I'm Not This)

La Youjad Illa Wahed لا يوجد إلا واحد (There's Only One)

wal-Kull Huwa Nahnu والكل هو نحن (And The Whole Is Us)

You can listen to the album Plastic Beach for free, courtesy of The Guardian,  through this link.

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