There’s a dreamy quality to the music videos, which Zeid Hamdan aka Shift Z makes for himself and other members of the underground music scene in Beirut. In one, Heba el Mansouri sings in a lilting, Arabic style, eyes half-closed as her husband swings her in circles next to a broken shoreline. Another home made video, for Shift Z’s New Government project, swings between electro and electric guitars. It starts off with snippets taken while cruising down a highway, under wide-open skies. Footage of band practise erupts into wartime scenes of flaming vehicles and smoky streets.

Read the full article...