Balancing dark mystique with a peppy rhythmic pulse, SAADI‘s “Cowboy In A Ghost Town” melds brass-y synth tones within an infectious vocal drive and woodwind-like illumination — particularly enveloping during the panting vocal effect past the two-minute turn. The project of Boshra AlSaadi, a Syrian-American New Yorker living in Los Angeles, also caught our ears in March with the track “Hollow Body.
“You’ll leave a dark legacy,” AlSaadi lets out following the title-referencing hookiness, culminating in an anthemic multi-layered vocal engagement in the final section. The reference to a “dark legacy,” highlights the track’s overall thematic hold — which per AlSaadi “examines the dark legacy of colonialism, the complicity of silence, and channels helpless grief in the face of racist violence.”
She continues: “This is not my first song inspired by the plight of the Palestinians, but it is the most overt. I was musically inspired by the Bubu music I used to play with the late great Ahmed Janka Nabay. The song features a chant from a protest staged by Jewish Voice for Peace in Hollywood.”
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
