Psychedelic Desert Funk Jamila & The Other Heroes release ‘BORDER SYNDROME

 

Psychedelic Desert Funk band Jamila & The Other Heroes has released their second double concept single, BORDER SYNDROME  احلام بلا حدود on the 16th July via Springstoff / slowtrane. This follows the release of YABA يابا earlier this month, the first of the concept double singles. The band are also looking forward to performing live at Sisyphos, Berlin on the 22nd of July. The five-piece has performed on several notable stages including Fusion Festival 2019, Rudolstadt Festival, the Klangfreunde World Music Festival, the Feminist Chouftouhonna Festival Tunis and supported the famous global pop band Bukahara.

 

The band released their debut album, SIT EL KON. ست الكون (The Grandmother of the Universe) in 2020 and have already received support from the likes of CLASH Magazine, Vogue Germany, OZY, Last Day Deaf and Psychedelic Baby Magazine, amassing over 143,000 Spotify streams and counting. Jamila & The Other Heroes merge psychedelic rock with elements of funk and Arab folklore. To achieve their unusual sound, they take inspiration from a variety of musicians including Yasmine Hamdan, Aziza Brahim, Dina El Wedidi, Erykah Badu, Fatuma Diawara and Tony Allen. While totally unique, their resulting sound sits close to the likes of Alsahra & The Nubatones, El Morabba3 and Altin Gün.

 

Jamila & The Other Heroes formed in 2016, based in Berlin but coming together from a variety of different backgrounds bringing influences from the Middle East and Latin America. The frontwoman, Jamila Al-Yousef was born on the day the Berlin Wall came down, and is the daughter of a Palestinian medical doctor who came to Berlin as a refugee after losing his home in the Six-Day War in 1967. More than just a love for music drives the band as they aim to break down prejudices towards people with histories of migration and asylum and make the abundance of cultural diversity more visible and audible.

 

In BORDER SYNDROME احلام بلا حدود Al-Yousef is embracing her Palestinian roots and imagining a futuristic border-free Middle East that comes after the pain of war, human rights violations, and being separated. The lyrics of BORDER SYNDROME احلام بلا حدود are about a discriminatory border situation Al-Yousef experienced when returning from a music gathering in Sinai to move through Eilat to Ramallah last year.

 

Jamila tells us the story behind the song, “I just came from a beautiful New Years gathering in Sinai with artists from the whole region and suddenly found myself in this painful border system – I looked at the Red Sea and saw Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan – knowing that also Syria and Lebanon are just a few hours car ride away – but also inaccessible. I thought of all the friends I have in these places and became very sad and angry about the region and people being torn apart based on political and economic interests. At the same time, I strongly felt my usually given privilege of being able to easily travel within Europe“. 

 

احلام بلا حدود BORDER SYNDROME Lyrics:

 

 الطریق للبیت اجمل من البیت

My way home is more beautiful than home

My way till home is my home Flying through diasporic zones On the road I feel less alone Roadtrippin home

 

I am an emotionally homeless white passing girl,

except for here, where my Palestinianness takes off my protection fur.

I park my dignity with the waves of the red sea

while they stripsearch my soul, and interrogate my extrovert me.

I pole dance my privacy for you, but this is not a tinder date, it’s the daily misuse of your power and control!

 

„If you are collaborative it will not take so long. Who do you know here and how did you meet? What is their work? Give me their numbers.

Let me see the photos on your phone!

And how did your parents meet, what do they work, where do they live and how much money do you earn?“

 

Leave me alone! I‘m just exercising my right to go home!

Hours later I find my dignity in the sound of the sea.

Wish I’d just dive to Aqaba or wake up in Ramallah and be free.

Still white skin privileged I stroll disoriented through Eilat, with heavy bags and a heavier heart.

 

I crave for arms in which I can surrender.


I long for arms to fight my emotional homelessness and this unfair political abuse of a region torn apart.

 

Let‘s build a place of togetherness where everyone is allowed

– no matter what name or passport –

live in freedom of moving souls and healing hearts, but yet we are seperated, geographically so close, but further away than the stars.

 

I long for touch


I long for love


I long for equality and the end of psychological wars.

الطریق للبیت اجمل من البیت

My way home is more beautiful than home

My way till home is my home Flying through diasporic sounds On the road I feel less alone Roadtrippin home

احلام بلا حدود

Dreams without borders

 

 

https://https://open.spotify.com/track/5kVgfuLgFdlUn4uLQ3vjzt?si=b8650c2bfba54d66

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