Since the release of her debut album Khonnar in 2018, Tunisian DJ and producer Deena Abdelwahed has been on a mission to recontextualise popular music from the Arab world. Her productions draw on everything from the maximalism of Egyptian mahraganat to shaabi wedding songs and dabke folk rhythms, while adding shape-shifting bass and the metallic textures of electronic drum programming to create foreboding tracks for the dancefloor.
Throughout Khonnar, she combined traditional percussion such as the bendir frame drum with thumping techno kick drums and distorted melodies, while 2023’s Flagranti EP ramps up the tempo by blending arpeggiated synths with samples of high-pitched darbuka percussion. It is that artful combination of darkness and danceability that gives Abdelwahed’s work its signature.
On her second album, Jbal Rrsas (Mountains of Lead), Abdelwahed continues the theme to captivating effect, adding a bright expansiveness to her trademark darkness. Channelling the grandeur of the album’s title, the record wields monumental synth sounds, from the fuzzy mahraganat melody over rattling trap drums on opener The Key to the Exit, to the thundering microtonal scales on the dabke-infused Six As Oil.
As the melodies envelop, Abdelwahed’s layered rhythms make Jbal Rrsas sound truly unique. During the six minutes of Violence for Free, she stacks at least four different beats to create a warped version of footwork while simultaneously singing a counterpoint melody, and on the sludgy Naive she chops breakbeats over a distorted synth to create a hip-swaying sense of swing.
These are loud, confident compositions no doubt borne from Abdelwahed’s experience DJing, as much as from the genres she is keen to interpolate. At only seven tracks, the album could use more of her yearning vocals but in its brief runtime it packs depth into its grandiose sound world and absorbing, unusual rhythms.
Also out this month
Congolese multi-instrumentalist Titi Bakorta releases his debut album, Molende (Nyege Nyege Tapes). Veering from a gravelly baritone to melodic falsetto, Bakorta’s voice is the star of this engaging folk-pop record, featuring intricate guitar lines woven through his emotive singing style. Chilean percussionist Alex Pertout duets with four master players on his latest album, Quadrifoglio (Nailuj Music). Pertout’s production can feel dated and distracting but his rhythmic battles with tabla player Hossam Ramzy and congo player Raul Rekow are worth paying attention to. Iranian singer Galeet Dardashti releases a fascinating project, Monajat (self-released), sampling her late grandfather Younes’ Persian classical music to create new duets. An inspired take on a rich archive.
