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Dec 7, 2017The rave presets of old will appease older fans while the more intricate synth work will satisfy more recent converts. Still, it’s the deeper tunes here that point to an intriguing future.
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Nov 2, 2017Some listeners are bound to find this repetitive too, and nowhere near different enough from his previous work. Yet To Syria, With Love is also Souleyman’s heaviest and hardest record since Leh Jani back in 2011.
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Jun 7, 2017To Syria, With Love is not an album for everyone--from the outset, these songs are sonically specific and never look back from those first unrelenting beats--but once you give in to the open emotions and the irresistible urge to dance, it makes for an ecstatic experience.
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Jun 7, 2017To Syria, With Love is musically interesting in its own right.
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The WireFeb 23, 2018Souleyman’s most recent excursion is seriously upfront music. The Syrian singer’s electro-hype dabke burnouts seem to have been ratchetted up to a degree that makes his own past efforts seem quite mellow. [Feb 2018, p.59]
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Nov 2, 2017With the singular exception of the mournful, aching track ‘Mawal’, To Syria, With Love is a celebration of the music of Omar’s home. With the life and vibrancy of the compositions necessarily tapered by the sobering, harrowing reality of the honesty in his lyrics, he has brought us an all-too-real-life case of tears on the dancefloor.
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UncutOct 23, 2017This is a meaty-sounding affair. [Dec 2017, p.30]
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Jun 7, 2017To Syria with Love was assembled with an eye toward expanding Souleyman's audience. Given the production and the wide selection of textural palettes and tunes, it's a good bet he'll be successful. It will likely keep longtime listeners in the fold, too, although the raw, unhinged feel of his earlier recordings will be missed.
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Jun 7, 2017The slower, more agonized songs best reveal Souleyman’s strengths.
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Q MagazineNov 22, 2017Impossibly energetic, joyously extreme and a little bit exhausting. [Jan 2018, p.114]
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Nov 9, 2017Filled with polyrhythms and squalling synths designed to get people on the dancefloor, it’s sometimes impossible to remain rooted in your seat. The drawback of this focus on the high-energy though, is that it can get a little wearing.
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MojoOct 24, 2017Souleyman's high velocity dabke-techno hybrid keeps the BPM and bleep count high on his third LP. [Dec 2017, p.96]
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Nov 6, 2017The impassioned ballad Mawal stands out as a contemplative reprieve, but it isn’t anywhere near enough to rescue the album.