Live Review: Omar Souleyman

He walks out onto the stage like a politician, arms outspread and a slight smile on his lips.

As his collaborator blasts the Syrian techno wedding beats for which Omar Souleyman became famous, the moustachioed frontman raises his palms toward the ceiling, microphone tucked within his loose, one-piece robe, called a Didashah. This strange character appears so confident and authoritative on the stage, his movements rigid and minimal. Yet his two dance moves (clapping his hands and raising his palms out to the crowd) are more than enough to sell the show for the MOFO crowd. The fast tempo beats are infectiously merry and though the lyrics are not in English Souleyman’s persona easily wins over the audience. The screen behind the duo begins as if you’re at a low-budget political rally, outdated filming techniques of the frontman clumsily inserted as picture-in-picture over a technicolour/neutral blue background. The bizarreness of it all is par for the course from the performer of Warni Warni, the film clip for which has clocked up close to three million views on YouTube. His face impassive, he sings from behind his three-piece headwear and dark sunglasses.

Souleyman began as a wedding singer in Syria and it’s reported that during this time he made and distributed no fewer than 500 recordings of his work to brides and grooms, usually just a single copy made. Now US dance music collectors are finding more and more of them, and making them available online.

The music is energetic synth love songs delivered by a most peculiar pair, who have completely and utterly won over the MONA crowd, which shouts with gleeful abandon inside PW1 while bitter, freezing winds batter the wharf outside.