TA2REEBAN is a Beirut-based three-piece that compresses old-school hardcore speed, Arabic phrasing, and a queercore sense of urgency into fierce, sub-two-minute statements. Their debut tape “صاحب الموتور بيستند عليكن” (released January 24, 2025 via a world divided) is a clenched fist: rapid, cutting guitars, shout-along vocal cadences, and a street-level view of a city under pressure. It’s music born under constraints—and that’s precisely why it hits this hard.
Sound: short forms, decisive messages
The tape opens with the blitz of “راحو”—a distillation of Beirut DIY hardcore: velocity on the brink, abrasive guitar sheen, and dry, surgical drums. “psychopaths” (38 seconds) functions as an instant pit trigger, balancing stop-and-go breaks with a headlong two-beat sprint. “قتيلة اطفال” and “شروق” carry slightly more riff contour, while “شروط واحكام” and “سنة جديدة” reaffirm the band’s ethos: if you can say it in 70–90 seconds, don’t dilute it. The closer “بتعرفو” lands as a collective shout, a compressed anthem for the room.
Production: Tunefork Studios and the aesthetics of stark light
Recorded/mixed at Tunefork Studios, the sound favors exposed mids, minimal sweetening, and no excess compression—an intentional choice that keeps the lyric and rhythmic punch front-and-center. In a form that lives at the crossroads of energy and message, clarity of edges trumps hi-fi gloss.
Lyrics & stance: political reality, queer awareness, Arabic street language
Even for listeners who don’t speak Arabic, the affect is legible: these are snapshots of economic precarity, institutional violence, proximate war, and improvised community. The queercore thread appears less as fashion than as ethics—attention to the marginalized, a language of resistance and care, a belief that catharsis is collective rather than solitary. The shout-cadences feel like sidewalk assemblies condensed into bars and breaks.
Arabic punk / Lebanese hardcore: a local idiom, not an exotic garnish
Coverage of the region often references HARAM, TAQBIR, and the shock-short forms associated with G.L.O.S.S. or Limp Wrist, while the roots reach back to hardcore institutions like Bad Brains. TA2REEBAN recombines these lines into something distinctly Beirut: stop-and-go precision, Arabic inflections embedded into the riff, and a lyrical stance that rejects spectacle in favor of testimony.
Track-by-track (highlights)
1) “راحو” — 1:03 of acceleration and serrated bark; a mission statement in one burst.
2) “psychopaths” — 0:38, pure kinetic hook; a set-opener in waiting.
3) “قتيلة اطفال” — riff work with sharper contour; the tape’s emotional apex.
4) “شروق” — a swift ignition; drum fills ratchet the shouted cadence.
5) “شروط واحكام” — manifesto-leaning; riff as thesis sentence.
6) “سنة جديدة” — a cut about beginnings; controlled chaos, vivid cymbal work.
7) “بتعرفو” — a no-slowdown closer; built for a room shouting in unison.
Why it works (three pillars)
1. Discipline of form. Sub-two-minute design—no filler, no bloat.
2. Local idiom. Arabic language and Beirut context are the engine, not a garnish.
3. Collectivity. The songs complete themselves with bodies in the room.
Scene & infrastructure: cassettes, constraints, agility
The 25-copy tape run is more than a collector’s detail—it’s a workable distribution model. Through a world divided, the music travels globally without shedding its neighborhood grain. It’s a lesson from the Middle East: scarcity breeds networks; scenes thrive on squats, micro-labels, and friends who carry amps and spread links.
Listening map (for adjacent sounds)
Browse benefit compilations (Gaza/Palestine), scan North African and Middle Eastern punk hubs, and revisit the intensity of Bad Brains and the manifesto charge of G.L.O.S.S. Not to force comparisons, but to hear the lines of dissent that braid languages and places together.
Takeaway: punk as care
TA2REEBAN insists that punk isn’t only negation—it’s care: for the person beside you, for memory, for language. In an age of information overload, the short form becomes a solidarity gesture: we’re here, we’re speaking now, we leave a trace. Follow it.
نانسي by ta2reebanListen / Follow
Label Bandcamp: “صاحب الموتور بيستند عليكن” Bandcamp – Artist Spotify / Anghami / Deezer Instagram YouTube – Playlist
Recommended on EF