Al Thawra

I am the revolution and you are the revolution
In your spirit you have the power
In your heart lies the secret
From your lips spills the truth
That the wine of power is in our blood
Together we can make a revolution
Tell your comrades
I am the revolution
We are the revolution

Recently I drove over to Preston to meet two of the bands that are at the forefront of the taqwacore scene in the USA. I already wrote about The Kominas with some thoughts about the documentary film Taqwacore: The Birth Of Punk Islam. The other band on the tour were Al Thawra ("The Revolution" in arabic) from Chicago, a group that were not given much airtime in that film but certainly deserve greater recognition.

Al Thawra are a trio but on this trip they had expanded to four members. Syrian-Polish-American Marwan Kamel sings and plays guitar; Matt Scott stood in for the absent bassist Mario Salazar; Micah Bezold was on drums; and Adam Jennings from Winters In Osaka guested by playing the sampler.

The music of Al Thawra is described as crust-punk, predominantly slow and heavy with flourishes of ultra-fast parts. What makes them stand out in particular is the profusion of arabic influences and the use of middle eastern instruments. Both of their albums, 2008's "Who Benefits From War" and the just-released "Edifice" are full of interesting instrumentation and samples and the occasional foray into unusual time-structures. The voices of Edward Said and Saddam Hussein can be heard in the dense mixes, alongside political lyrics about current affairs, both at home and abroad. Marwan told me that Muslimgauze is a key influence on him and the spirit of the late, great experimentalist can indeed be heard within.

The stand-out track on the new album is "Wine Of Power". It features slow but extremely heavy music which is a rough backdrop to the lyrics strongly influenced by sufism. Strip away the grungey guitars and the screaming vocals and you will actually be left with some kind of grubby dub tune. The bass growls along and the Moroccan percussion adds to the intensity. Every so often it breaks right down until you are thrust back headfirst into the maelstrom when the band all kick right in again.

Seeing Al Thawra live is quite a cathartic experience and I thought their performance was excellent. The set began with the voice of the arabic music icon Oum Kalthoum blasting out the speakers before the distorted guitar kicked in. For years I have been bored with punk but this was the most exciting stuff I had heard in the genre for a long time. Forty minutes of this just wasn't enough and the set was over far too quickly for my liking.

Of all the bands that are labelled as taqwacore, Al Thawra are the most original and interesting. Although firmly rooted in the punk tradition, they have a lot of creativity and are not afraid to try out new ideas and develop their sound. Also, their lyrics don't rely on sloganeering or shock tactics in order to be noticed. The taqwacore documentary too often focussed on quite immature behaviour from the involved bands and the music was sometimes too derivative and rudimentary. I thought that the film makers should have given more time to Al Thawra who are a far more serious affair. Maybe that didn't fit in with the vision of the director but I believe that was a major weakness in the movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day with Al Thawra. Not only did they supply a fine performance but they were a pleasure to chat to and they also showed a lot of humility. Forget about the meaningless terms taqwacore and islamic punk, Al Thawra have already gone beyond these limits and deserve to be viewed as a respected band in their own right. Not only that, I believe that their best is yet to come.

Here are the photographs that I took of Al Thawra in Preston.