Hot in more ways than one

Anyone even vaguely familiar with Egypt’s traditional music, big on sultry atmospheres and always arranged around big, brash rhythms, will not be surprised to hear the ancient country is a key one to watch for emerging electronic artists.  It’s in their musical DNA.

Acts like 3Phaz, whose 2020 album Three Phase mashed up the Egyptian Mahraganat/Shaabi sound with modern electronica techniques, and Zuli, whose tracks have been known to pop up in Aphex Twin’s DJ sets, have already made significant marks beyond home territory, as have labels like 100Copies and Nashazphone.

The latter’s 2022 compilation This Is Cairo Not The Screamers continued to up the country’s profile, collecting together seven crucial cuts by new Egyptian talents and they’ve kept the pressure up. In the second half of last yuear alone, they issued Zuli’s Digal Dive Live album, Sister Iodine’s Hollozone and another brutally uncomprosming V/A affair Tutto A Posto Niente In Ordine, all proving this scene is no flash in the pan.

The more deep house-slanted Adham Zahran, meanwhile, having already recorded wax for Lisztomania, We Play House, Gemini Wax and others, has just released a new album called Space Dance for JuJu Music, incorporating elements of Chicago house, Detroit techno and jazz into a mature but contemproary house sound. Zahran’s brother, by the way, is superstar DJ Hisham Zahran, one of Egypt’s premier international selectors and a DJ who now plays venues across the world.

+