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Let’s Get ‘Restless’ At This Weekend’s Shoreline Sessions

Restless leg syndrome involves an irresistible urge to move one’s body, and that’s what you’ll be doing this weekend when you hit up Radio Beirut’s second Shoreline Sessions party at Long Beach.



The lineup includes Austrian trio Restless Leg Syndrome, a band that produced the innovative “Dabkeh” album in 2013, fusing Oriental folkloric music with hip hop. The masterful musical team behind the album consists of DJ and producer d.b.h and the two turntable wizards, Chrisfader and Testa. Beirut.com spoke to the band to get the lowdown ahead of Friday’s awesome outdoor event.

Beirut.com: How long have the three of you been working together?
RLS: We’ve known each other nearly 15 years now and all come from the same part of the mountains in Austria. The work with RLS started 4-5 years ago when we put all our stuff together in one studio.

Beirut.com:How did the concept for Restless Leg Syndrome come about – is it a project that’s evolved out of collecting records, and a hip hop background of sampling?
RLS:Our first record was based on swing music from the ’30s and ’40s. [The genre] was really big in Austria at the time and we didn’t like the way most producers handled it production wise; just sampling a swing groove and mixing it with a cheesy house beat. So we started diggin’ for old swing records and combined them with more organic hip hop beats. And thats basically the same thing we did with our second record called “dabkeh.” It was very easy to work with Lebanese folkore and bellydance music cause there were so many breaks, different patterns, solo instruments and singing. So it was waiting to be sampled…

Beirut.com:Tell us about the process of preparing for the “Dabkeh” album. When did you first fall in love with Arabic music?
RLS:d.b.h started listening to Oriental music in the ’90s after hearing the first Arabic samples in songs from french super group IAM. After traveling to Morocco, Tunisia, Libyia, Egypt and Jordan the bonding was fulfilled and boxes full of tapes were brought home. Then in 2000, he started traveling to Beirut and got lots of Lebanese records from the ’60s and ’70s.

Beirut.com:You’ve played a lot of concerts and festivals this year with the Dabkeh project – how have European audiences responded to the album and to Arabic music?
RLS:Yeah it´s crazy. We are travelling a lot and somehow it seems that there is still less modern Arabic (that is not commercial) music out there you can play at a club. The great thing is that we get very positive reactions from Westeners as well as Arabic folks. So when we play in Brussels we have Palestinians dancing with African and Lebanese doing dabkeh with Irish students. It’s funny. Its a diverse mix like the record.

Beirut.com:Have you noticed a growing awareness and interest in Arabic music outside the Arab world?
RLS:Yes definitely. Just have a look at the producers Omar Souleyman worked with and the attention Yasmine Hamdan got. I hope more local groups can start touring Europe, but I also see a lot of difficulties with that because of visa issues and travel costs. But we played or organized shows in the last months with Malikah, DJ Sotusura, Stormtrap Asifeh, Hamorabi and Shadia Mansour.

Beirut.com:Tell us a bit about your latest musical projects?
RLS:We are working on a new RLS record going back to our Tyrolian roots and sampling original Austrian instruments that we recorded at our studio. So it’s going to be different. And we are all doing other stuff as well. Have a listen to the links… DJ d.b.h “altered reverbs“ EP, Testa’s “Sashay” EP and “Von Seiten der Gemeinde” LP

Beirut.com:What will you be throwing down at The Shoreline Sessions this July and what are you looking forward to about it the most?
RLS:It´s great to perform with artist like Zeid Hamdan and Omar Souleyman. d.b.h is a big Soap Kills fan and listened to Omar Souleyman before Bjork fame. Both of them we never saw live so we will be at the front row. We will play our mix of hip hop beats and bass music combined with dabkeh percussion and old lebanese melodies. We guess there is no better place to do this than at Beirut shore

The Shoreline Sessions featuring Omar Souleyman, Restless Leg Syndrome and Maii and Zeid happens this Friday, July 24 at Long Beach. Join the Facebook event here or buy tickets on Presella.com. Tickets are also available for purchase at Radio Beirut.