The work of Syrian artist Omar Souleyman has reached a wider international audience in recent years, with several releases on Seattle-based world music label Sublime Frequencies (co-run by Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop). Now, Souleyman has finally announced his first ever studio album, Wenu Wenu, to be released in the fall via Ribbon Music. Aug 01, 2013 Title track from Omar Souleyman's 'Wenu Wenu' produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). Buy the CD/limited edition vinyl/cassette from Ribbon Music: http. First Listen: Omar Souleyman, 'Wenu Wenu' The Syrian speaker-slayer enlists subtle production help from Four Tet mastermind Kieran Hebden to craft a pan.

But for Wenu Wenu, Souleyman united with Ribbon Music — and enlisted help on the mixing desk from mastermind Kieran Hebden, who splits time between London and New York, as well as points ever-evolving on the pan-global electronic dance scene. The result is a jam so visceral, thrilling and intense as to make the mysterious matter of earthly borders seem hardly worth the time to contemplate. Download Hackboot 1 Hackboot 2. The title track opens with a blast, pushing strange organic/electronic sounds and serpentine melodies over an industrious beat fit for a street parade. Souleyman sings throughout, sounding like a sensitive gentleman between drags on a cigarette in the studio, and the whole song just keeps accruing and accumulating energy as it stretches to seven minutes. With that, the stage is set for an album that doesn't let up. If you listen to only 90 seconds of music this year, make them the ones between 1:14 and 2:44 in 'Ya Yumma,' in which a keyboard solo screams across the sky in ways that need to be heard to be believed.

No less formidable, 'Nahy' follows with a cataclysmic beat that bangs away and laughs down any desire for variation or change. As sounds of the sort slot into place, the presence of Hebden as a producer is felt, but only subtly so. This is Souleyman's show, to be sure, and it speaks well for the planet that we have a chance to take it in.