Sababa 5: The anachronistic funk group keeping Middle Eastern grooves alive
Middle Eastern contributions to the world of art, music, and culture have been extensive and enduring for hundreds of years, but the region far too often overlooked in the modern age, thanks in large part to the political turbulence which has plagued parts of the region for decades now. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, in contrast, nations like Lebanon, Turkey, and Iran were at the forefront of a bold new era for musical expression.
As the attitudes and cultural revolution of the swinging sixties permeated across the globe, more and more artists began to experiment with different sights and sounds within their work. In the Middle East, traditional folk music and instrumentation seemed to fit almost seamlessly with the psychedelic sounds emanating from London and the United States, paving the way for a multitude of Middle Eastern artists to establish entirely new sounds.
The music emanating from nations like Iran, which boasted a particularly vibrant pop scene during the 1960s, or Turkey, whose Anatolian psych-rock completely transformed the genre during the 1970s, completely subverted Western expectations of the region. Moreover, these scenes produced some of the world’s most inventive and compelling sounds back in the 1960s and 1970s, even if those outside of the region rarely took notice.
Tragically, many of these artists and scenes failed to gain much traction outside of the Middle East, and the sounds of Anatolian psych-rock gradually faded away like every other music genre, while the pop scene of nations like Iran and Lebanon was unjustly cut short by political unrest, conflict, and war. However, the mind-expanding power of the music meant that it could only stay away for so long before it was rediscovered and adopted by later generations of musicians.
During the mid-2010s, it was the Tel Aviv outfit Sababa 5 who picked up the torch of Middle Eastern grooves, creating captivating instrumental tracks which drew from those old-school psychedelic and funk-ridden sounds. Adopting a truly expansive sound that took certain cues from the pop and rock sounds of 1960s America, Sababa 5 was predominantly interested in the sounds of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, giving their work something of a global atmosphere.
In the decade since their formation, the outfit has worked tirelessly to create some of the greatest psychedelic funk to ever grace the modern music scene. Their two Batov Records-released studio albums – Sababa 5 and Aspan – perfectly capture their power as an instrumental outfit, flowing effortlessly from the atmosphere of Turkish psych-rock to funk, pop, hard rock, and all with the marks of traditional Middle Eastern folk music, too.
Albums aside, however, it is through their various collaborations that the quality and importance of Sababa 5 really shine through. In recent years, the band have recorded with the likes of Inbal Nur Dekel, Sophia Solomon, Yaara Shaulian, Canay Doğan, and Shiran Tzfira, all of whom have lent their respective awe-inspiring vocals to the infectious rhythms set out by Sababa 5. The diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and languages employed by each of these artists further aid in expanding the cultural repertoire of the band.
Although they hail from Tel Aviv, and have since relocated to Paris, France, the sounds of Sababa 5 cannot truly be limited to one location. Their work spans across the Middle Eastern region, paying homage to its rich blending of cultures and sounds while also helping to establish that incredible music in the modern age. Each new release from the band seems to expand their musical horizons further, helped along by a revolving cast of collaborators.
The sounds of the Middle East – much like the rest of the region’s rich culture and contributions to the wider world – were never going to fade away into obscurity. The fact that Sababa 5 have effectively been able to bring the atmosphere of those records from back in the 1960s and 1970s to modern audiences speaks volumes about the trailblazing quality of the original artists, as well as the endearingly anachronistic nature of the band itself.
