Practice the “Art of Listening” with Dubai DJ Karam Toubba’s E-Klips

Dubai DJ Karam Toubba wants you to listen up. Like, really listen up – from start to finish. Through his new E-Klips series, Karam wants people to rediscover the art of listening, one track at a time, and he’s providing the tunes to make it happen.

E-Klips is Karam’s audio and visual programme – on his YouTube channel – designed to provide “a music listening experience that includes a variety of moods and feels”. Each episode is bathed in a colour that compliments the chosen record’s frequencies. For example, green represents beatless ambient music “solely focused on tone and atmosphere”. Blue represents “sensual and sensitive tones filled with melody”. Red embodies his passion for techno. And purple signifies “deepness from a variety of genres” including house, breaks, electro and minimalism.

Powerful

Karam states there are several reasons for honing in on just one record at a time, from start to finish. “As a selector, I feel that listening to dance music for the sole purpose of knowing if a track fits a mix or not isn’t enough to really engage with the track itself. Meanwhile, listeners’ expectations regularly focus on a DJ mix as the journey, as opposed to one individual track. Each track has the same potential to be just as powerful when observed and heard in the right setting.”

Diminishing

“Today, streaming platforms dominate the way music is consumed. While this is positive in some ways, it’s also diminishing our relationship with music,” adds Karam. He recalls the mostly bygone days of chatting with like-mined people while “flipping through tapes, CDs and vinyl” in record stores. “Today, nobody really talks about music anymore because we’re all sitting comfortably at home, listening, buying and consuming online.

“It’s reached a point that the only time music is ever a subject in conversation is between the artists themselves. Actual diehard fans of music are a dying breed. Anybody today that says, ‘I listen to all kinds of music’ for the most part doesn’t. People barely even know what such a statement actually means these days because the effort needed to be a music lover isn’t actually easy.

Comfort Zone

“People have the tendency to listen to music and try to find a similar or familiar pattern with sounds they are already into. The moment they are introduced to sounds outside their comfort zone they lose interest pretty quickly. The more you’re in your own bubble, the more you’re missing out on musical experiences. This fact alone should give people a reason to practice the art of listening.” Karam continues: “We’re doing ourselves a disservice when we don’t give soundscapes we are not used to a genuine chance . And when we don’t allow new ideas and creative outputs to inspire us.”

New Voices

Through E-Klips, Karam is also amplifying visibility for the artists and labels he loves, hoping his tune selections spark interest for people to follow new voices in electronic dance music.

Karam is posting his E-Klips four times a week. He announces each one on his Instagram page. “My hope for this project is to build a community where music discovery becomes part of their daily routine,” says Karam. The latest E-Klipse episode features Eversines’ In Vivid Motion. Listen carefully below.

Photos: @samisassophoto

Also read: Who Deserves to be on the UAE Music Power List 2021?