Ramallah Underground

Ramallah Underground

Video still from film Collapse by B. Abbas and R. Abou-Rahme

From Myspace:

Ramallah Underground, based in Ramallah, Palestine, was born from the immediacy of musical experimentation and the need to give voice to a generation of Palestinians and Arabs who face a turbulent and uncertain political landscape. 

The collective was founded by artists Boikutt, Stormtrap, and Aswatt and has always held a commitment to both the honesty of their work and the need to creatively rejuvenate Arabic culture. To this end they combine music ranging from Arabic electronic music, hip-hop, trip hop to downtempo with a deep sense of their local culture and imposing presence of Palestine in their lives. The outcome is a new specific distinct sound....

Their lyrics and music are an expression of anguish and defiance, ultimately remaining a defiant voice of the colonized against the colonizer. They continue to play a big role in the Arab Underground cultural scene while slowly gaining wide global and local popularity.

It is very difficult to find music from the group online [Edit: LastFM has a ton of tracks for free download] (which makes sense considering the economic/political complications of their homeland). The best source is their myspace, which I highly recommend checking out.

Ramallah Underground :: Sijen ib Sijen
Ramallah Underground :: Aswatt il Zaman
Ramallah Underground :: Dameer Mustater 73

Also the prolific Kronos Quartet performed one of their songs on their album Floodplain from 2009:

Kronos Quartet :: Tashweesh (Interference)

There is a darkness/rebellion to this music that holds the power of resistance.