2014

«Oum Shatt is a Berlin boy-group below the poverty line», a phrase from the band’s official press information, which at this point and due to its rich subtext shall not go unquoted. Poor but sexy, broke but band. The old Berlin story, a reality beyond hipster economy, city marketing and souvenirs. Rich in illustrious members though Oum Shatt is navigated by singer Jonas Poppe (Kissogram), guitar player and actor Hannes Lehman (ex-Contriva, Mina) and drummer Chris Imler (Driver and Driver / Die Türen) who –let’s quote that press info again– rightly goes under the description «the Don Corleone of Berlin Rock’n’Roll. Three imaginary boys, venturing into a dry and twitching no-wave experiment, around dusty guitar riffs of often Arab aesthetics. A little bit of surf, a title bit of marxism, upbeat yet composed, black and white, ties and suits. If there is an Egyptian Post-Modernist Society, Oum Shatt is the band playing at their annual dance party.

Super Sunday 2017

Oum Shatt are concerned with the specters of here and there. For years, the singer Jonas Poppe has indulged in an escapist passion for collecting Turkish and Arabic records, and the influence of these records’ patinas, rhythmic structures, scales, and harmonies on the mysteriously elegant indie-pop of Poppe’s Berlin band is self-evident. In Oum Shatt’s Wedding rehearsal space, Turkish psychedelia fuses with California surf and New York no-wave into a nostalgic phantasm designed skillfully by an utterly irresistible quartet whom we already described in detail upon the occasion of this festival’s 2014 edition. This supergroup (Poppe, Imler, Lehmann, and Wolschina) returns to Torstraßen Festival after only three years—and for good reason![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]