PORTISHEAD, GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL, 1995/Alamy
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
At first glance, it may seem that we only glorify songs from the past in this section, but we're correcting that now. So let’s talk about a beautiful song from an album released this year. ‘Rewind’ is a song by one of the leading voices from the now quite distant 1990s, Beth Gibbons, the vocalist of Portishead, one of the few singers alive who could sing with a register of such desperately sweet anxiety. Even at the age of fifty-nine, she sings this track as if lost among a crowd of refugees while cloaked in Middle Eastern motifs. ‘Rewind’ is a disaster song, and it sings of the premonition of an inevitable natural catastrophe. It suggests that humanity has already advanced to such a degree that all attempts to turn back time are futile. All that remains is to listen as the clarinet blows into your ears to the tune of a sandstorm.