Dabke: Sounds of the Syrian Houran

One suspects there isn’t a lot of dancing going on in Syria just now. But anyone who, in happier times, was fortunate enough to be invited into a Syrian household will have probably experienced a bit of impromptu, domestic dabke. Once you got past the regime’s glum exterior and the brutal Soviet-inspired architecture, it was not unusual to find whole families enjoying a spontaneous shakedown. Dabke is stomping, celebratory music and dance that is popular throughout the region: it sometimes appears in a slightly prettified form as part of folkloric displays but it’s usually at its most earthy and muscular at weddings. This rough and ready collection, which features live recordings of very variable quality from around the Houran area of south-western Syria, really captures the dabke spirit: it’s a wonderfully sweaty blend of lo-fi drum loops, unwittingly cheesy synth sounds, improvised vocals and real instruments.

The real star of the show is the braying little mijwiz, the droning double-reed instrument that cuts across everything like a Telecaster cranked through an AC30. If you’d like to try dabke for yourself, the best advice I’ve heard for mastering authentic moves is to raise your arms and imagine you’re grinding chocolate cake into your worst enemy’s brand new, white carpet.