The black and white noir aesthetic of El Morabba3’s video for “El Wuhoosh” with its use of animation techniques and visuals give it the aspect of an experimental science fiction movie. The song is about struggling with the forces of hostility, strife and oppression that exist within and between nations. And the haunting and unsettling imagery of the video is reminiscent of a darker corner of the Zone from Tarkovsky’s Stalker or one of the pockets of Hell in Can Evrenol’s Baskin. The figures in the video look like they’ve been smeared with the spirits of the battlefield and shaking off that psychic poison. A spectral drone serves as the backdrop to the lyrics with the swells of human voices drifting into a spiral of tones and distorted washes of sound and flickering noises. That is until the song blossoms into an expansive dynamic that breaks through the silence and the dark boundaries of the bleak nighttime forest setting. It’s the sound of hope against hope, against an extremely challenging present. For some the song may be reminiscent of some of the more unusual experiments in sound and conceptual songwriting that Peter Gabriel did early in his career, to others more in the realm of modern masters of dark yet colorful moods like Laurel Halo and Grouper. But El Morabba3 presents us with its own unique vision and expression of a conflicted world and an attempt to come to terms with how to transform these situations through creative acts. Perhaps in a way that more blunt action in the world has yet to accomplish. Watch the video for “El Wuhoosh” (which in English is “Monsters”) on YouTube and follow El Morabba3 at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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