AMS album of the week 2

It’s been a long two years for Egyptian Hip Hop, and after jumping off the hype machine they were so reluctantly thrust upon, they have returned with a debut album full of new material that takes a different, perhaps more accomplished direction than their earlier releases.

The infectious pop hooks and bass lines which featured on the singles ‘Moon Crooner’ and ‘Rad Pitt’ still remain but this time around, they are immersed in a struggle between tribal rhythms and Cure-esque meandering guitars. The album wears its world music influences on its sleeve, with the sheer diversity of the sounds and instruments used revealing itself after each listen. Despite this, contrary to previous releases, each track on GOOD DONT SLEEP feels like it belongs with the others.

Beginning the album with a kick, ‘Tobago’ is heavily layered with all sorts of nice fiddly guitar sounds and ominous chant-singing. Next up is ‘The White Falls’, which upon listening to, one could easily expect an ambient interlude, but instead it bursts into arguably the most anthemic of all tracks on GOOD DONT SLEEP. The latest single ‘Yoro Diallo’ features some of the less reverberated vocals of the album, with a wonderful murmur-along chorus and a wonky pop mentality. ‘Snake Lane West’ is a slow, progressive nod to the guitar stylings of Adrian Belew, while ‘Pearl Sound’ is a psychedelic euphony. Next on the track listing and the first single taken from the album is the surprisingly dancefloor-ready ‘SYH’ which starts as a jangly affair and ends with a great IDM-come-Talking Heads breakdown (sounds odd, but I feel I’m pretty accurate on this one). Another highlight is ‘One Eyed King’, a slow, muggy monster of a jam, leaving the glittering vocal harmonies of ‘Iltoise’ to end the album on a soothing note.

One can’t help but get the feeling Egyptian Hip Hop have made the album they always wanted to, shedding the role of bloggers’ golden boys to pioneers of a deeper, progressive evolution of experimental pop.

By Yasmin Malik