Hamed Sinno

After leading up one of the most prominent indie-rock bands of the Arab world, Mashrou' Leila, the prodigious composer and performer Hamed Sinno returns to the stage with their solo debut for Shubbak Festival 2023. 

Poems of Consumption is a literary song cycle that explores the resonances between Amazon-era consumerism, mental illness, unrequited love, and environmental collapse, without purporting to have an alternative or moral high-ground. It’s a portrait of Nero, a desolate working-class melancholic crying at Whole Foods while the world outside comes to a boil. The compositions juxtapose the romanticism evoked by the sound of a string section, with hyper-industrial electronica created out of the sounds of consumerism (crumpling cellophane, bubble wrap, unboxing, ripping plastic) to swing between dancefloor & aural assault.