In the music video for ‘Ghost Town’, the lead single from 47SOUL’s upcoming EP Dualism Pt. 1, a Palestinian man runs through an empty central London. He stops as he reaches Whitehall, the street that leads to the Houses of Parliament where many of the country’s government offices are, as thousands of people holding red, green, white and black flags, and ‘stop bombing Gaza’ placards, walk past.
Over a dancefloor hitting, off beat rhythm, singer Tarek Abu Kwaik (aka El Far3i) sings in a mix of English and Arabic: “My people on fire / Bring me water / occupied by alliance / This goes to my people they’re lions”.
For the shamstep pioneers – who blend space-age electronics with traditional dabke folk influences – music and politics are inseparable. Founded in 2013, their name refers to the 1947 Nakba (‘catastrope’), when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homelands, with hundreds of towns and village destroyed as part of the Zionist military’s ‘War of Independence’.
Dualism Pt. 1 pays tribute to the Palestinian journalists who have continued to risk their lives to report to report on the atrocities happening inside Gaza. Ahead of its release and their fundraising launch party – where proceeds will go to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund – we asked them to pick out some of their most cherished physical items.
