Over the past decade, alternative rock (also known as alternative music), have gained great popularity among young people in the Middle East. Its flexibility in blending various music genres, and nonchalant yet defiant attitude, were the perfect mixture for young men and women to convey their inner voices.
In a time of political and economic turmoil, the alternative Syrian band “Tanjaret Daghet” (Pressure Cooker in Arabic) emerged. Their mission, as the name suggests, is to deploy art to uplift people’s spirits, and help them pour out their sorrows. Owing to the fact that the very mechanism of the “pressure cooker”, is similar to the the vital effects of art, both on a psychological and intllectual level.
What brought the band together was their utter rejection of mainstream music, and its detachment from human suffering. Consequently, they formed Tanjaret Daghet in 2008, to fill the grave shortage in the Syrian music scene, and break through the dominance of conventional music in the Arab world.
In their early beginnings, Tanjaret Daghet consisted of four members. Dani Shukri (Drums), Tarek Ziad Khuluki (Electric Guitar and Vocals), Narik Abajian (keyboard) and Khaled Omran, the band’s lead vocals and bassist, who participated in multiple cultural projects in Syria, as a performer, composer and music distributor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F04ijpvVM1w
The band started off by composing music that is closer to “fusion jazz” and “Improvisation”. “Back then, we were filled with an overwhelming desire for change, and enthusiasm to criticize corruption and perversion in Syria.” One of the band members says. Currently, the band fuses different music genres, from punk rock to electronic and Arab music.
Music genres, however, is not the only thing that changed about Tanjaret Daghet. In 2011, the whole band moved to Beirut, except for their keyboardist (Abajian). In Lebanon, they signed a record deal with “Rhythm Media Production” corporation, that will accompany them through their concerts in Beirut and the Arab world.
In 2013, the band’s first debut album titled “180 degrees” was released. The album addresses humanitarian an social issues in time of revolution and war, and represents the absent, marginalized voice of young Syrian people, who yearn for peace and love.
The band held numerous performances, including the “Jazz Festival” in the citadel of Damascus in 2010, an international participation in the “Francophone Song Festival” in 2013, and concerts in Beirut, Cairo and Alexandria. Additionally, the band performed in several charity concerts to raise funds for Syrian refugees, women refugees and children diagnosed with cancer.
